Hostile 2: Enter the Nephilim
by Mallaithe
Summary: The last of the Nephilim arrives in Seacouver. Strange sequel to Hostile, Stargate SG1 Highlander cross COMPLETE please review
1. The Last

**A/N this is a non-standard 'Fic to say the least. If you do not like 1st person POV, or Nephilim etc feel free to skip to Hostile 3 :D (I don't believe much will be missed)**

I am the last.

Let me explain that, what I mean by the last is not the last in a foot race, not the last one in to dinner, not last in the class, or the youngest child, or the final person served at the dinner table.

By last I mean I am the last, the final, the ultimate, the conclusion, the end, the conclusion of my species, the final incarnation.

People can't understand it they aren't programmed to, its like discussing the numbers involved in astrophysics you understand all the zeroes mean it's a large number but the size of the number is basically unimaginable. Here is how I explained it the only time I tried.

Imagine you are having a conversation, you tell a funny story only no one gets it because it is only funny to someone who has had a similar experience. Someone with the same job, who went to the same school, lived in the same town, the same country or whatever.

Now take that feeling and apply it to your whole life. My language, the food I grew up with, the letters of my alphabet, the animals I knew, the plants, the architecture, the art, music, jokes, pop culture, sky, stars, sunsets, mountains, history, politics, heroes, family, friends, mentors, enemies, allies, lovers, every single thing in my life is gone. Every common cultural memory and inside joke is obsolete and irrelevant.

All that is left is me. _That_ is what it means to be the last.

I don't tell people that. I don't like to talk about it and they don't like to hear it. It hurts its one of those wounds that is always suppurating, never heals, and can never be fixed.

I live in a medium sized city called Seacouver. My best friend is a semi-psychotic immortal. I work as a private eye and she's my muscle. We handle the weirder side of things in Seacouver, the jobs the cops write off and the cheating spouse/employee P.I.s won't take. So, money is usually a problem. Her name is Max, mine is Simon, I'm the last Nephilim.


	2. Bad News

I live in my office, well the back room anyway. It makes things easier for me. I don't need or want a lot of space, I don't eat although I can, and while I don't need to bathe or groom I like that too, so I have a hot plate and a nice master bathroom. I am 6'6" I have white blonde hair cobalt blue eyes and a forgettable face. Max makes me buy nicer clothes than I would choose for myself but other than that I don't pay attention to my looks.

I got up carefully cleaned myself and became presentable. I dressed in my favorite jeans and work boots and a button down soft bluish shirt that Max had gotten me the week before. She said it brought out my eyes. I unlocked the intervening door between the office and my living space and closed it behind me.

Max was sitting at her desk. She was leaned back in her chair blowing bubble gum bubbles and humming, her shoes were on her desk. And the computer was doing a file search of some kind.

Max is 5'5" has short curly hair, green eyes and lightly tanned skin, she is solid muscle, and a dead knockout when she tries. She was dressed casually but looked great. I wasn't sure if she had heard me come in.

"Hey." I said just loudly enough to be annoying. She startled and over balanced backwards. She snatched her feet off the desk and slammed them to the ground while slapping one palm on the desktop to catch her balance. She gave me a foul look followed by a wide grin. Max's grin is one of her best features, it completely changes her face, its huge, crinkles her eyes, and stretches her lips, and it's infectious. I returned her smile and sat on her desk.

"What are you searching?" I asked her.

She gave me one of her blank contemplative looks that were a bit of her trademark and said, "Something for Macleod."

"Ah, you two speaking now?"

Macleod was one of her oldest friends and I guess a mentor. I didn't pry into her life as an immortal Max in turn didn't ask me about being a Nephilim. It worked for us. However Macleod's morals and Max's battered moral compass were often at odds. There was another immortal Max mentioned at times, a man called Adam, apparently he had been sympathetic to her and acted as a buffer, but for some reason he had left town several months previously.

"More or less, Joe kind of forced the issue."

Joe was human but a friend to her and the other immortals. I wasn't sure he knew what to make of me. The one time we had met had seemed to pick up on me, knew somehow I wasn't human but the other immortals hadn't reacted to me the way they did to each other so I suppose he had either written me off or filed me away. I made it a point to avoid the older man without making a fuss over it. He was nobody's fool and I did not fancy making more of it than it was.

"Any calls, letters, emails, or sundry inquiries?"

"No sorry." She said and smirked. I sighed. Max thinks its funny that I need money. I don't eat, don't buy many clothes, etc. But the office isn't mine, I rent it, and the rent is steep. So yeah I need money. I don't know where Max gets her cash, would rather not to be honest. I know she had her own agency, once, years ago. I doubt it netted enough cash to allow her a huge savings account, and I only pay her when I can so I don't ask. Still she seems to think that being the bastard off spring of an angelic being entitles me to something, I'm not sure what, money, powers, prestige.

"Rent's due in a week. See if you can scare something up. I'm going out."

"'Kay." She called as I left.

Fact is I do have some abilities. I just don't use them mostly because the ones I'm good at would bring the national guard down on me faster than a giant ape climbing the empire state building and the ones I'm not good at, well there are reasons I'm not good at them. So I walk from place to place, pay cash for services and items and mind my Ps and Qs. Keeps me unnoticed and intact.

So I walked down the five flights of stairs and down the three blocks to my used car. I sometimes missed the old days when I could have used faster means but thems the breaks as they say. I had to meet a friend, well a sometime friend, a player from the other side. I don't trust him but he's got his uses.

So I drove across town paid to park and headed toward the docks on foot. Seacouver isn't a rough city although it has its patches, its low income neighborhoods and crack dens like any American city but all in all it's relatively peaceful. There are other cities where even with my unique nature I wouldn't walk through alone at night. Seacouver is not one of them.

I'm stronger and faster than the average human and have a literally limitless capacity to learn. Which means I can handle myself pretty well although a WWE heavyweight or juiced up superman type could probably beat me down but I'd live. I don't take chances, I don't pick fights and I don't like to get noticed, unlike Max. She loves to fight, picks 'em all the time.

So I headed toward the docks to meet Ben. Ben is not his name it's a shortened bastardized version of one of his dozens of names, but he likes Ben and it's easy to remember. I found the crappy bar Ben had named and sat at the bar. I ordered a drink which I wouldn't drink although I would make an effort to appear to and waited.

Okay, I can drink alcohol, have in the past will in the future, but it effects me poorly. When Nephilim drink they don't get drunk, strictly speaking, they do get violent, and horny. So I don't drink unless it's a very special occasion like I'm about to walk into a room with fifty guys who have guns and don't like me.

I waited for an hour before Ben arrived. Ben is a little dark squidge of a man. He is almost instantly forgettable and rather weasely. He sat next to me and peered at me with his beady black eyes. I ordered a drink for him. He downed it and grinned at me with tobacco stained teeth.

"What's up Simon?" He asked.

"Nothing in particular, what've you heard?" Ben shrugged, I bought him another drink.

"Your long lived friends have slowed down their activities recently. None of their kind have wandered through in the last six months, other than that lot not much to report." I bought him another drink.

"Yeah and your Dad popped through." I gave him a slow cruel look.

"Lies will get you hurt Ben."

"No lie Simon. He wasn't looking for you, I doubt he knows you're here or who you are. He came through on work like." I clenched my fists and listened to the glass of my drink groan and whine in my grip.

My father was an angel. That's how the Nephilim came to be. Angels got friendly with human women and pop meet the Nephilim. My mother had died thousands of years ago but my father still lived. My father Kushiel was an angel of punishment. Ironic.

"Do you know what he was doing here?"

"Something about a priest." I nodded not really caring.

If I'd had my way Kushiel would've been dead thousands of years ago but he wasn't. I wasn't really sure if he even knew I was still alive. After the war as we called it or the forgetting as Kushiel and his brothers called it, it was generally assumed that all of the Nephilim had died, and we had, nearly. I doubted the heavenly host was bothered by one sole Nephilim roaming the world. Still I would love to take Kushiel's life. He had taken the lives of my brothers, sisters, and cousins effortlessly. My mother had died before he could kill her too.

"-Simon?" I realized Ben was still talking, had been talking.

"Sorry what Ben?"

"He's gone now Simon, back to wherever that lot go to. You can't do anything now."

"Anything else?" I asked sharply. He frowned.

"No, nothing else Simon thanks for the drinks." I nodded and left wordlessly.

Ben was a lying conniving mooch. But he wouldn't lie to me about Kushiel, no one would. Still I had other sources, I wanted to confirm the little demi-human's words and see if anyone else had seen Kushiel. I headed uptown, to the antique district.


	3. Negotiations

I don't know why Sharkey is called Sharkey, I just know that he is. He works as a butcher's assistant in a posh restaurant in the antique district. Why they have a butcher I don't know but they do and an assistant. Sharkey says the pay is crap but the perks are great, I don't ask about the perks. Sharkey isn't human I don't know what Sharkey is frankly I don't want to know, anyone who enjoys the 'perks' of a job like that is someone to avoid, which most of the time I do.

I waved at him from the front window he nodded. I stayed outside and watched as a fall rain shower started. I hung out under the eaves and played with my keys in my pocket.

Another reason to avoid dealing with Sharkey is that I always ended up owing him a favor, his information was _that_ good and when he came calling he never wanted something easy or morally above board. It was always messy and tricky and left me feeling greasy and used. So I avoided Sharkey, respected him but avoided him. He knew but never pushed it.

He finally came out, wiping his huge dirty hands in a heavily starched white cloth. He nodded at me. He was a huge man seven feet tall if he was an inch, his hair was dark and thick, very coarse like dog hair, it hung shaggy but was cut rather short. His face was dull and brutal, his clothing neat and starched.

"Hi Sharkey."

"I figured you'd be coming 'round. Saw your Dad the other day." I nodded.

"Yeah Ben said he was in town."

"Anything I should know?"

"Nah he was here to punish some priest, I think he embezzled or something, no kids involved anyway, makes for a nice change." Sharkey growled, no matter his mood or tone his voice always came out as a growl.

"They sent Kushiel for an embezzler?" I asked, Sharkey shrugged.

Kushiel was an extremely heavy hitter; he was one of seven angels traditionally charged with punishment, as far as I knew he was the only one still employed in the old trade. So to send him after a minor mortal seemed a waste of talent, I'd have to look closer.

"Got a name for the Priest?"

"Yeah Father something." Sharkey grunted. I sighed.

"If you help me Sharkey I will owe you a favor." I said, he just wanted to hear the actual words. He grinned and nodded.

"Aye your dad was in after the priest Father Kale, over at the southside mission, not sure if he was here in his official capacity or fillin in, by all accounts Kale's a good sort. Either way he were here, short time though only about twelve hours."

"That's a long time for an Angel." I said.

I was beginning to feel a real fear. If Kushiel knew I lived and saw me as a threat I was done for. He could call in a half host or even a full host and there was nothing I could do to save myself. I had fought the Angels and seen the terrible fury of their war. I had even killed an Angel but I would stand no chance against a group, even Kushiel would be beyond me. I made small talk with Sharkey for another few minutes and then excused myself.

I went back to the office and Max was waiting for me. She had a stack of papers on her desk and was sorting through them quite carefully. I didn't say anything as I entered. I sat at my desk and turned the computer on. I sat listening to it boot and thinking.

"Hey Simon? EARTH TO SIMON!" Max shouted. I glanced over at her. She had her elbows on her desk and her chin resting on her palms, she cocked her head.

"Contemplating the secrets of the universe?"

"No, not as such. My father was in town."

"I thought you said your father was an Angel?"

"He is."

"Bummer." She said. She studied me closely for a few seconds.

"What shall I do for you?" She said.

"Track down everything you can on Father Kale, local priest, I need to know why Kushiel would be interested in him, also I need to talk to your friends I may need their help."

"'Kay, but you can't hire Mac unless you want to give him all the details and back story, He's paranoid about getting innocent blood on his hands. Adam sure but he's not in town."

"You think I'll have to give him an autobiography or just the general idea?"

"Well, if you don't want him pissed at you give him broad strokes if you don't care if he has a mad on then do what you like but make sure it sounds good or he'll smell a rat, make it plausible."

I sighed. I really did not want to make another enemy but I didn't relish the idea of going through my past with a stranger.

"Think he'll believe the truth?"

"You know Ahriman?"

"Yeah he got kicked back to hell back in the nineties, in Paris I think."

"Mac did the kicking."

"Yeah?" I asked and she nodded. That changed things a millennial champion on my side could be quite an asset. Or, it could be a liability. A demon fighter could complicate things.

"He still active?" Max gave me a puzzled look.

"Does he still fight demons?"

"No, just the one, and his inner demons of course, y'know for a boy scout he has a surprising number of those." She turned back to her computer.

"Well, see if you can broach the subject with him, see if he might be approachable."

"I'll need more details."

"Like?"

"Oh what you're doing, why, who Kushiel is, whats in it for Mac if he helps you, just minor things like that."

"I'll give him more details if he's willing to meet with me." I grunted.

The last thing I want is for all of North America to find out the last Nephilim is living in Seacouver. I scrubbed my face and logged onto my computer. I waited until Max was preoccupied with her paperwork and opened another screen I entered a secondary password and began a search. The second password opened access to my encrypted personal files. I was sure Max had noticed the files, and the encryption, she may even have cracked it, partially anyway. Part of the benefit of having the mind of an Angel is an instant ability to comprehend almost anything. This includes any and every technical manual I've ever read. Learning programming wasn't too difficult for me.

I typed Kale's name and address as well as Seacouver in to the search function and let her rip. I knew adding Seacouver would dig up a ton of extraneous nonsense hits, but I was hoping amongst the mass would be a jewel that would reveal what the hell my erstwhile angelic sire was doing in town.

I sat in a shadowy booth in Joe's bar. For whatever reason Macleod had decided he would only meet me there. I supposed it was fair since I was asking the favor but my nerves and paranoia were on full alert. I held a cool glass of lager in my clenched hands and waited. Joe had drifted by a time or two or one of his waitresses eager to refill my untouched beverage. Every time the rear door or entrance door opened my hackles went up and I began to half rise. It was a slow night and none of the usual crowd of immortals had shown up.

I wondered if it were possible for me to get a tension headache. I supposed now was the time to find out. I didn't get sick normally although I think I picked up Ebola a few years ago on an overseas trip it made me feel like dying but as far as I know, short of being killed by an Angel Nephilim are immortal. I have suffered some pretty severe injuries without a mark to show for it. But during the war I was wounded and I still carry a scar. Something about Angelic weapons, not sure what but I'd love to get my hands on one. Make me feel safer anyway.

I waited quietly unobtrusively until finally Macleod arrived. He was soaking wet and looked impatient. I watched as he stopped at the bar and spoke with Joe for a moment Joe pointed at me and the tall highlander headed over.

He sat and stared at me. I remained silent, after a few moments a bottle of whiskey and two glasses arrived. The highlander poured two glasses and put one in front of me.

"I don't drink." I said, he eyed the beer.

"Appearances." I said. He was a handsome man, strong features, dark brown nearly black eyes.

He drank his whiskey and mine and leaned back.

"Strangers in town?" I asked he remained quiet. I gave up and began fiddling with my beer again.

"What do you want?"

"I may need your muscle."

"I'm not for hire."

"Max said you like to help lost causes."

"Not sure how accurate a statement that is anymore." He said cryptically.

"What did Max tell you about me."

"You aren't human, you aren't one of us and you are in trouble."

"Yeah well that's all true."

"Look, I'm no here for my health if you have something to say out with it." I sighed.

"Do you know what the Nephilim are?"

"According to legend the children of Angels and human women, they were wiped out when the angels began teaching the women and Nephilim magics." I nodded.

"They weren't all wiped out, not all of them." I said softly. My gaze was lost in the fog of lager in the glass before me. We both remained still for a moment.

"My father was in Seacouver a day or so ago. I am trying to find out why. If he knows about me he might . . . well I don't know what he might do, but it's bound to be bad."

"What do you expect me to do?"

"I don't know. You're an antiques dealer, a warrior, an immortal, you have skills."

"I can't fight an angel."

"You fought a demon."

"Without any weapons." This was news, I narrowed my gaze.

"I fought Ahriman in my soul no weapons." I closed my eyes.

"I need to find an Angelic weapon."

"Why?"

I reached up to my collar and pulled my shirt open two buttons bounced off the table and were lost on the floor. I lifted up my T-shirt, exposing my scar. I had been stabbed through the mid chest with a war spear; the damn thing was a foot wide and a foot and a half long. I don't know how I survived. The angel had driven it into me with such force that the cross brace had penetrated the skin and meat of my back and fetched up against my rib cage, I had a very interesting scar back there as well.

"Because only an Angelic weapon can do that." Macleod regarded the scar. I imagined he was comparing it to similar injuries he had sustained but I couldn't say for sure, I wasn't him, barely knew the man.

"I don't know what I can help you with. I wouldn't know an Angelic weapon if it bit me, and if you survived that you've got more going for you than you think." I sighed and picked up a butter knife.

"I'm not immortal." I said and stabbed it through my forearm. I winced at the impact and then drew the blade free. There was no blood and after a moment no wound. I have blood and can bleed but it usually takes a while or a much larger injury. He took it pretty well. I tossed the blade down.

"I am half angel Macleod, I have the powers of an angel and the perceptions, emotions of a human. I am not a threat to them not with my siblings and cousins dead but Kushiel, terrifies me. He is an angel of punishment, my father. Not someone I would like to meet generally."

"You've never met him?"

"No, he took my mother and left her when she was pregnant. I never learned any of the magics from him; my half brothers and sisters taught me what their fathers had taught them, I learned well and practiced. I seemed to have an affinity for it. When I was a man the angels returned to us, and slaughtered everyone. For whatever reason I lived."

"That's it?"

"No but its all I'm going to tell you. I've been around a hundred thousand years or so Macleod."

"I've got a friend you might like to meet." He said and smirked into his whiskey. I stood up.

"If you change your mind." I said and tossed a business card onto the table. I wasn't sure if the immortal was being a dick, drunk, or uninterested, but I had tried.


	4. Lonely Flight

I was pissed when I left Joe's I tossed a twenty onto the bar and kept walking sans change. I slammed the door behind me and hailed a cab. I brooded as I headed back home. Max was gone; the office was silent and dark. I went into my little room and studied it briefly. I picked up a bag and began filling it. I had no business staying in Seacouver. It was inviting disaster.

I locked the office behind me and headed back out. Max was waiting out front.

"Thought you might try that." She said and nodded toward my bag. I sighed and set it on the cold pavement.

"Its too dangerous to stay here Max."

"Yeah? Why? 'Cause dear old dad came by? He didn't even stay for a day. He was here and gone. He probably doesn't even realize you're alive and even if he does why would he care about you now?"

"I don't know Max! I don't fucking know okay? Look I know your lot's greatest tragedy is not knowing where you come from or who your parents are, but guess what? There _are_ worse things and Kushiel is one of them." I snarled. She glared at me and I noticed the lamplight from the street reflecting off the pommel of her sword.

"You can't take off Simon it's not fair!"

"You are my friend Max, if he wants me he might come through you."

"I can handle myself Simon."

"No, Max, you can't not against a fucking Angel, okay? The only thing that can harm an angel is the blood of Christ or an Angelic weapon."

"What about a demonic weapon?"

"They're the same thing."

"Then let's go find one, or are you content to run around the earth avoiding your father for the rest of eternity?"

"This is over as of now." I growled and let some of my power out.

My skin glowed from the inside my teeth and eyes glittered. I flexed my power and a low near subsonic boom rippled through the block. Max stepped back and stared at me in shock and fear. I kept the power flowing but controlled and watched as my only and best friend took off at a sprint. I reeled in the power and felt it settle back into my flesh. I had to leave, the energy and power of a Nephilim is extremely distinct, and so it was a fair bet that any Angelic presence within a few hundred miles would have felt it. I felt a moment of panic my heart leapt in a strange rhythm. I shook my head. The energy had all ready been released so instead of calling a cab I called my wings.

I love my wings, not all the Nephilim had them. I have a twenty foot wingspan. They are blood red; I don't know why the Angel's wings if they have them are a white purer than fresh snow. I felt the warm itch as they sprouted from my shoulders and tore through my clothing. I spread them and felt a fierce joy swell in my chest. It had been a thousand years since I had flown. I flapped them a few times to insure my instincts and memories were still sharp. Then, I flew, I launched upwards in a glorious burst of iridescent red and speed. The bag was still clutched in one hand, I had snatched it up in rage as Max and I had snarled at one another.

I would miss Max; she was truly my best friend. I felt sorrow for the loss of our friendship. I banked my wings and drifted over the city I saw Max far far below she was still running I didn't blame her, she headed to Joe's and ran inside, she emerged a few seconds later with the highlander. I circled like a lazy vulture and studied them.

They were arguing. I wanted to get closer and listen in. Then I recalled a lesson from long ago, I stretched my skills out, my senses and ears. I could hear them.

"He is not crazy and he is not lying. He's leaving town Mac."

"Good, he's trouble, Angels Max?"

"Yeah be skeptical, remember you were the millennial champion, you fought a demon Mac how is Simon so hard to believe?"

"What does it matter? He's gone now anyway."

"He's like us Mac, alone in the world only he doesn't have Joe, or Adam, or anyone else he is truly alone. His entire family, his whole race were butchered before his eyes. You thought it was hard to be driven out of your clan? Imagine his life."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Help me find it!"

"I don't know what to look for Max, an Angelic weapon? Come on!"

"Fine fuck you too." There were tears in Max's voice.

I pulled my senses back and headed higher. I went west toward the sea. Somewhere I dropped the bag, it didn't seem important anymore. I reveled in the joy of flight. Heading higher and higher until my own innate power was the only thing holding me up in the too thin air and then plummeting down back toward the icy sea. I pulled up close enough to the surface to feel the spray on my cheeks. I hurtled back up and began heading for land I arced back east, I liked the Americas and was tired of Europe. As I approached the western shore of North America I felt his presence like a thunderclap. Kushiel or an Angel of similar power was nearby and had noticed me. I panicked and headed down. I punctured the rough seawater like a stiletto and darted down through the black bitter cold water I went down thousands of feet using my wings like rudders and dive surfaces I whipped past surprised marine life and around rocky outcroppings I dived until I settled into the amazingly soft and cold silt of the deep sea floor. The angel was still there. I could feel him hovering on the edge of my soul.

I waited lying in the muck, my wings spread out like a dead bird's. I didn't need to breathe, or move, I could lie there for years, but whoever was up there could wait for years. I remained still for a very long time. Finally the sense of the angel began to fade away. I lifted off the floor and began beating my wings and heading to the surface. I burst out like a demented killer whale and headed higher. I glided over Seacouver and tried to gauge how long I had been under the sea.

It was fall so it was either still fall or fall again. I banked and headed down it was dark which was good, I could hide myself in plain sight, from most sentient humanoids anyway but it was tiring. I landed and reluctantly let my wings fade away. As they faded I began to feel more myself.

The Achilles heal of my abilities is that they bring out the angel in me. Angels are as far from humans in mentality and emotional make up as it is possible to be so when I used my powers I opened up a gateway a sort of one way road to that side of me. I shut down and cut off most of my humanity it made me dangerous, ruthless, and brutal. It made me Angelic.

I shook off the dregs of power and studied myself. I was un-aged, unmarked, and naked. I could walk around butt naked or use a small amount of power to hide my nakedness. I opted for naked. It was dark enough I could make do until clothing was made available. I headed for Joe's with any luck I could find Max there. I kept an eye out for one of those fifty cent newspaper dispensers on the way I badly needed to know how much time had passed.

The bar looked locked and dusty. The sign still read Joe's though. I wondered if I had solved my problem by avoiding the strange angel. I knocked on the entrance and hoped whoever answered if anyone wouldn't shoot me.

I waited and knocked several more times. Finally there was movement somewhere in the depths. A bulky shape appeared in the gloom and approached. I tensed but stayed still. There was the sound of chains and bolts being worked. Finally the door opened. The highlander stood in front of me.

"Uh, what do you want?" He asked. He was bleary with sleep and naked from the waist up.

"What year is it?"

"What? Who the hell are you?"

"Just tell me what year it is and where Max is."

"No, who are you and why are you naked?"

"I'm Simon." I sighed. It could be a long night.

"I don't know any Simons, or a Max." The immortal grunted. I spotted a newspaper lying discarded on the bar top and shoved past the immortal. He didn't stop me I snatched the paper up and read the front briefly. It had been ten years. I crumpled the newspaper up and let it drop to the floor.

"Hey do you mind?" The Scot asked, his burr slipping out. I glanced up at him. His eyes wandered over me and then met my eyes.

"I need clothes and transportation."

"Yeah? Why should I give them to you?"

I stared him down until his gaze wavered slightly and then let a trickle of my power loose it flared my eyes and raced over my skin in golden rivulets. I pulled it back a split second before my self control failed.

"The Nephilim." Mac grunted slowly returning his gaze to my eyes. I nodded.

"I hoped you'd been some drunken memory not real at all."

We regarded one another in silence for a moment. My casual nudity seemed to unnerve the scot. In my youth clothing was unknown. It was unnecessary and unusual in it presence, I had never developed the body shy instincts of the current times.

"Where is Max?"

"She's not here. She left years ago, tried to find your stupid bloody angelic weapon, then I don't know she went to Colorado and has been living in Colorado Springs for a few years."

Alarm bells were going off. I had kept tabs on many things that humanity had snuffled into it in its idiot happy go lucky quest for advancement and answers. One of those answers was in Colorado Springs.

"Clothes?" I asked. He begrudgingly loaned me a set of clothes that did not fit well, boots that were too small and $150. I took the money wordlessly. I was going to stay off the grid. I imagined I had been declared dead three years ago in accordance with local law. I did not want that declaration reversed. Ten years at the bottom of the ocean was enough for me, who knew where I'd have to run to next time. Kushiel was a problem for another day. I had to find Max; if she had any idea where I could get an angelic weapon I had to trace it.

I longed to use my skills again. The urge was addictive. For the entirety of my long gone youth I had used my skills and powers daily. I had never had to hide my wings until the war, never had to control the forces inside me until then after eons of practice I had succeeded in controlling them, at a cost, the joy and rush I got from using them tended to act as a narcotic. It would be sometime before I could ever use them and not experience literal withdrawal.

As I left the immortal I felt a wave of nausea crash into my chest, it nearly drove me to my knees. The withdrawal had begun. I stopped in an all night grocery store and picked up a six pack of alcoholic energy drink, it tasted like tar but woke me up and dulled the nausea. I headed to the greyhound station on foot, bought a ticket for Colorado Springs and with the last of the cash Mac had given me I bought a blanket, a packet of cheap pens and a notebook.

I took my seat, wedged against a window and wrapped tightly in the blanket. I began writing in the notebook, cramped tight writing, lists of items, random words, anything to keep my head focused and grounded. If I didn't I was likely to forget that I was for all intents and purposes, human. Human beings have withdrawals but they don't glow, or blow up buildings, or do any of the other things I might if I lost control of the forces inside me.

So I glared at the paper and wrote until the notebook was full, then I flipped it over and wrote on the backs of the papers. I wrote slowly and carefully insuring each letter was perfect. I got some crazy looks and each time someone had the seat next to me they swapped to an empty one. But it worked, again. I had discovered the method in the early fifteenth century; it had yet to fail me. Still it was almost as weird as the D.T.s and I looked forward to a day when I found a better way, or a place where I could be myself, my whole self without fear.

I was conscious and focused during the entire trip to Colorado. While I do not need, food, water, air, or grooming facilities, I do need sleep, my Achilles heel so once the bus arrived and I felt like I was safe to relax is pick pocketed a drug dealer's wallet,-I don't know how I knew he was I just did, that often happens with me and criminal types. I ditched the drugs and kept the cash. I caught a cab and rented a room for the night.

I slept for three days and settled up with the manager before leaving. I felt stronger, more settled, more human than before, but more than that I missed Max and felt badly about how we had parted.


	5. Regrets and Voyeurism

Friends are a strange and rare thing for me, and I had thrown her away. I know its no excuse but I'm not good at friendship, it's just not something I've needed before. Yeah I've been around for more years than the human mind can comprehend, but in that time I've never really had a friend I've never needed or wanted one. What the hell would something like me want with a friend? I barely managed to deal with humanity en masse as it was. Until she showed up and demanded I hire her. Max was almost as fucked in the head as me, and she wasn't even a hundred. I think she started life skewed and then got bent further as life and circumstances took their toll.

I wondered if she would even see me, I wondered too if she had gotten involved in the activities near Colorado Springs. If she had I might not be able to rely on her help anymore. But, that was presumptuous to begin with, knowing Max she might stab me in the throat and throw me down some stairs just on general principle, after all she knew I'd live and it probably wouldn't even hurt that much.

First things first I had to find her. Colorado Springs was a big city, full of Airmen and professionals as well as everyday Joes, in other words plenty of eyes and ears. The military presence didn't bother me over much, they were an observant and keen lot, besides short of a direct hit from a mighty big explosion I didn't think there was anything they could do to me permanently and in spite of paranoid pop culture it takes a lot to authorize a missile strike on home ground.

There are certain abilities I have that don't have such an impact on the world as say wings sprouting from my back or a power flex leading to a sonic boom in the middle of a city, these are the abilities I tend to be skilled at for obvious reasons, one of these is Observing. When I observe I borrow the eyes and ears of local humans and scan through their perceptions. This can suck if say I borrow a schizophrenic or a drug addict on a high, or on one memorable occasion bumped into a possessed man and had my ass kicked by his possessor a high ranking demon. I don't like to Observe casually it can sometimes leave a psychic echo in the human I use and it always leaves me well, coated with traces of their thoughts and feelings, I usually end up getting violently sick. So I try not to use it.

It's sad to say but even as a mere half Angel I can't handle emotions well, I actually had to learn them from my mother. I mean they're there, but dormant. I still haven't mastered some of the more subtle ones. Ambivalence is a toughie, I can recognize most emotional reactions in humans and spending time with Max taught me a few of the more delicate ones. I like snarky, snarky is cool tough to spot but entertaining. She said her friend Adam taught her the fine art of snark.

So when I get slimed with a hundred or so different people's emotional residue I kind of overload leaves me weak and nauseous for a day or so, as long as I don't happen onto another demon that is. I think I scared the big bastard more than anything. Nothing quite like lost Angel spawn wandering into your routine possession to shake things up.

So I found a public men's room and locked myself in a stall. I braced myself in the corner between the surprisingly clean commode and the wall. I didn't want to fall and have some good Samaritan bust the door down and 'save' me. Plus coming back from Observing could be violent, sometimes I would have a small seizure, it seemed to happen after long periods of time or contact with multiple people.

So I took a deep breath I didn't need and began. I sent myself out and rushed through the local humans. Nothing just random images and bursts of emotion, no Max, I kept going. I stretched out until it felt like every citizen of the city was in my net and finally caught a glimpse. I pulled my focus in and zeroed in on the flutter of emotional recognition. It wasn't in the city at all. It was way the hell away from the city, in a military installation. I forced myself into the unlucky human. Something I rarely have to do, usually it only occurs when the human has some psychic ability himself. I used his eyes; I was sure it was male and looked around. He was still fighting me.

I pulled back from his eyes and spoke in his mind.

"Be calm I am no enemy I need your eyes, be still and I will be gone."

The resistance lessened slightly. I rocketed back into his eyes before he could put his defenses back up. He was sitting in a drab room with a pile of books and papers and artifacts of some kind piled before him. I looked around and didn't see Max. I could feel my own body quivering with the effort. I had never before had to control and interact with a host human.

"Please I seek a friend." I asked as my strength began to fail. The last time I had Observed had been roughly six hundred years ago. I wasn't in any shape to make it a battle of wills.

The human's resistance increased and I felt a wave of pain wash over me. Whoever this person was he had a strong mind. I force fed the human feelings of regret and apology and sorrow, and then as my strength faded I flung the picture and thought of Max at him and retreated.

My body spasmed and jerked as I settled back in, I suffered a short seizure, my heels and palms drumming the filth marked floor before going slightly numb and still. I lay breathing hard which was funny 'cause I don't need to breathe, I just like the feel. The realization of this thought struck me as particularly funny, so I collapsed into a brief laughing fit.

I was still shaking and nauseous when I recovered but managed to get to my feet. I used the walls of the stall as support until my legs were trustworthy again. I opened the door and took two steps only to do an about face and heave a belly of breakfast into the commode. I'm not sure why I had decided to eat real solid food today of all days but it had been a bad idea. I dry heaved for another twenty minutes. I stood up and staggered to the sink, I cleaned up as well as I could and rinsed my moth a dozen or so times.

As I was cleaning up a grubby looking kid popped in. I had chosen a public restroom in a diner. The kid could have been anywhere from fifteen to twenty-five, he had the glassy eyes of an undernourished recreational drug user but he didn't smell of drugs and he didn't feel like a criminal. He gave me a neutral look and leaned over his own sink. I stood up and let my face and neck air dry.

"What'd you eat?" The kid asked. I cocked my head in puzzlement. It sometimes takes me awhile to reset my brain after Observing, the boy's words hadn't made sense to me for a moment. As the meaning of his question settled into my misused skull I smiled.

"Nothing here, yet."

"Good idea, don't start, the cook's a pig." I nodded. I tried to lean away from the countertop but my legs started to buckle. I caught the edge of the counter and saved myself from falling.

"Are you all right? There's a hospital about six blocks over."

"Fine, just not enough sleep and a little food poisoning. You wanna make some money?" I asked. He regarded me with the kind of keen eyed gaze reserved for pool hall sharks.

"I'm not a prostitute." He said defensively, I was actually shocked.

"Kid I'm not trying to pick you up. I'm late to meet a friend, I need a cab, if you flag me one or call me one and help me get in once it gets here I have a shiny $100 for you."

"Seriously?" He asked I nodded and took the bill out. He shrugged.

"Fine, easiest money all day." He left, I presumed to secure a cab. I leaned my weight on the counter and shook my head. Observing that many that quickly had been stupid. I'd be lucky if I felt well in a week let alone the day or two I had planned. 

Okay yes I'm all powerful, up to a point. That point is the sticking point, er, yeah. Okay it works like this; I'm all powerful compared to a human. But my body follows most of the same or at least similar rules. Say you decide to get really fit one day so you go out and you jog three miles, by that afternoon you're lucky if you can hobble around and forget about jogging. I had just run an Olympic marathon with the physique –metaphorically speaking- of a fifty-year old couch potato. Bad idea so now I was paying for it, at least I wasn't dead in an E.R. somewhere which would be the likely result of some fool in that condition actually running such a marathon, but you get the picture. I hurt, my body and soul were severely battered, because not only had I run that marathon but the audience along the way had thrown things at me, heavy things.

I waited fifteen minutes for the boy to return. I managed to get to the door and lever it open when I spotted him. He was walking back to me, I allowed him to take my right forearm and guide me to the sidewalk. Sure enough there was a cab waiting. I handed the kid the money and didn't care if he stole my wallet which would be a cool trick 'cause I didn't have one, just a wad of cash from the dealer. I happily relaxed into the rock hard indifferent plastic of the cab's rear seat. The kid pocketed his bill, and just the bill and walked away.

"Where to mister?" The cabbie asked, he sounded Israeli.

"How far to Cheyenne Mountain?"

**A/N:** yes faithful reader you guessed it, its sequel time! This will mesh in with Hostile several years after the events described in hostile, well hopefully it will mesh in, its always tricky, that meshing, things tend to go squish and flollop about, but have no fear together we will conquer the flolloping, the squishing however will have to wait.


	6. Last Defense

Cheyenne Mountain turned out to be rather closer than I imagined, at least physically, but getting onto the installation was not going to be easy at all. Damnable security, something had the guards on edge, more alert than usual. I did not want to try to Observe again, I did occasionally have the ability to Force humans but I hated it and it damaged me, physically. Somehow, interacting with humans whether Observing or what have you took a severe toll on me, I think it was because of my weaker human blood, some kind of cellular chain reaction maybe, or I'm talking out my rear, hard to say.

Anyway getting in through the main gate wasn't much of an option so I took a room nearby and rested. After a day's sleep I tried to Observe again, and got my teeth kicked in.

There was a wall. Somehow, someway, I don't know how there was a wall, I hurtled into it at the psychic equivalent of light speed and scrambled my mind. I lay on the floor gasping like a landed fish for some time. I lost track of time, of myself, of the world. I floundered, lost and terrified, I saw the face of my father look into my own with love and my mother's filled with darkest loathing, and then at last nothing.

"It's awake sir."

"It?"

"Okay, he's awake sir."

"Is he dangerous?"

"We don't know, probably, but he's not Goa'uld or any other known race we've encountered."

"Yeah we know that. What do you think?"

"Think sir?"

"Yes Doctor, think, what is your opinion?"

"I honestly don't know, he isn't an immortal, Max proved that-"

The name brought me back, my eyelids fluttered and rolled, my tongue lolled sloppily in my dirt dry mouth.

"Here we go, security on alert?"

"Of course sir, but I doubt they'll be needed."

Slowly I levered my eyelids open and stared around. The room was white, and hard and very clean. A blue green curtain surrounded us, separating us. Two people stood near me. One was a tall man in some kind of dull green utility uniform. The other was a woman with a lab coat and an important seeming clipboard.

"Ooh." I groaned cleverly and tried to focus my eyes better.

I reached inside and felt for my power, for my strength, it was gone. I panicked and sat up too quickly, my head reeled and I collapsed back onto the gurney or whatever I was lying on. The woman whom I assumed was a doctor made important admonishing noises and fussed a bit. I managed to open my eyes again and locked gazes with the man. He frowned.

"Where's Max?" I managed to ask although it wasn't terribly intelligible.

"Sir?"

"She's off world."

"She'll be here, what's your name?" I liked the doctor's voice she seemed kind but it was hard to see, my eyes hurt so I closed them.

"My name is Simon." I muttered.

"Simon? Who are you Simon?"

"The last." I muttered and drifted away.

I opened my eyes again and Max was leaning over me, she gave a small squeak and jerked out of my line of sight. I blinked slowly and tried to sit up, someone's hand on my shoulder stopped me it was the kind doctor. I shrugged her off and sat up. I felt better, almost myself but my core was still gone.

"What've you done to me?" I demanded. I was struggling not to panic. Think of it as waking up without an arm, or no memory, or being trapped in your own body.

"Simon?" This from Max.

"You remember me?" I asked. She shook her head, a negative.

"Why not?" She frowned at me.

"Why don't you remember me? How can't you? You used to work for me Max, you used to harass me to dress better, and you liked to pick fights, you, you had a best friend a, a, teacher a man named Adam, I never met him but you said that he . . . he took your side against Macleod he. . . Max its me, come on!"

"How do you know all that? I've never seen him before." She insisted to the man in the utility uniform.

"Damnit Max, you have to!" I cried my raw throat spasmed and I began to cough harshly. The doctor tried to get me to lie down again I shoved her away and got to my feet.

"This is insanity, what did you humans do to me? Max, listen to me, you are the only friend I've got, the only one who noticed me and gave a damn, I threw that away, we argued and I scared you and . . . and I fucked it all up Max, its my fault, I'm sorry, okay? You know me, sometimes better than I do and believe me that's saying something, considering how long I've known me." I paused to catch my breath.

"I've told you everything there is to know about me Max, all the highlights anyway come on Max, you used to pick out my clothes for me 'cause I've no sense of style, you saw me in Seacouver I . . . did something, startling, something unnecessary and you ran, you ran straight to Joe's bar and saw Macleod, you talked, you argued with him tried to get him to help you help me –" There was a glint of recognition or realization in her eyes.

"Yes! Max come on, remember, please you've got to remember!"

"I. . . I don't know, it seems familiar but I'd remember something like that, I mean I don't know anything about fashion, I mean come on! And me arguing with Macleod? I do that daily and Adam, well he took off years ago vanished out of my life, he could've told you anything."

"Max, I know you, I know you would never trust just anyone, I know that if you trusted Adam with anything about you there is no way he would just tell a stranger!" I insisted. She frowned.

"Okay fine don't believe me, call Macleod, I borrowed some clothes and money from him a few days ago, he'll tell you, he remembered me!" I could hear my voice becoming strident; I swallowed and tried to calm down.

"Simon I . . . I don't know if you're lying, or crazy, or what's going on here."

I sat on the bed slowly and looked up at Max, her pale green eyes were swimming with tears.

"Max just call Macleod please, call him, I've been. . . damaged somehow I don't know how to fix it or I . . . I could prove it. Just _call_ him."

Max looked over at the uniformed man, he nodded and the doctor handed over her cell phone. Max sighed and began dialing a long distance number.

"Hello Mac? Yeah, no uh nothing wrong really, look uhm. Does the name Simon ring a bell? It does? Naked? Yeah really? Wow, no, nothings wrong, uh, when did he come by? Really? No, no damnit Mac DO NOT COME HERE okay?" She hung up exasperated.

The uniformed man arched an eyebrow at her in an unreadable silent joke. She smirked at him and I felt such a sudden and sharp sense of alienation and despair that I gasped aloud. It was like a physical blow. I turned away from their smiling, secretive human faces, away from the comradeship and friendship there. I closed my eyes and reach IN I forced my way through raw places, through defensive walls and deep into myself. There was a seed, an ember, I smiled and opened my eyes it was there.

"Well?" I asked Max.

"Yeah Mac remembered you, aren't too many butt naked men who come calling at his door in the middle of the night. But, Simon that was seven years ago."

"What? Seven years?" I thought about it for a few long moments.

"Yeah, I suppose that's about right then. Ten years in the water, seven more . . . I last saw you in front of my office I'd say roughly seventeen maybe eighteen years ago."

"The private eye? I only worked for you for like nine months."

"You still don't remember, do you?"

"Remember what?"

"You look me in the eye and tell me these people can be trusted, swear it on your life and the lives of your people and I will tell you what you can't remember."

With absolutely no hesitation, no pause she looked me square in the eye.

"Simon I swear to you on my soul, on my life, on the lives of the immortals that these people can be trusted."

"Good enough for me." I said and stood up. I returned her steady stare and began fanning my spark, building a new fire so to speak.

"I am Nephilim." I said, I didn't expect thunderclaps or cheers but the blank eyed silence the room gave me was a bit of a let down. Then there was a thump and a rattle beyond the curtain. A man wearing glasses and a manic expression popped his head into the curtained alcove.

"Hey Daniel." Max said.

"Nephilim?" The man asked.

"Sorry, you are? Actually can I get a few names please? Max I know the rest of you well, you have me at a disadvantage." I grunted.

"Fair enough I am general O'Neill two Ls, this is Dr. Daniel Jackson-"

"Good enough Jackson what's your specialty?"

"I uhm I'm an Egyptologist."

"What does an Egyptologist know about Nephilim?"

To his credit he didn't seem intimidated, most humans who hear Nephilim confuse it for a sneeze or pee themselves if they have any idea who we were.

"Are you an Angel's bastard?" He asked bluntly.

I smiled but kept my mouth shut. If that didn't wake Max up nothing would and in the meantime I could feel my power returning. It was considerably less than it had been but I could only hope it would return in time. Still by the time they got their shit together I'd have enough power to level the mountain if they wanted to play hardball.

"Incidentally where the hell am I and how did I get here?"

"You're safe, we found you and had you brought here, you were in a coma."

"Well yeah I got that but how'd you know where to find me?"

"We had a tip."

"Yeah I bet you did, tell me did you also have one of your researchers come down with a fierce pain in the head about then? Images of Max? Yeah I bet you got a tip all right."

"Uh Jack what's he talking about?"

"Haven't got a clue."

"Yeah well someone has. Remember me yet Max?" I asked. I was only wearing a hospital gown so I started searching for more substantial clothing.

"No not really, I remember the job and working for you but I don't remember what a Nephilim is, Angels Daniel?"

"Uh yeah, the bible doesn't really come out and say it but according to legend the Nephilim were once a race of half angels, the children of human women and angels, they thrived until they began to overpopulate and ravage the earth, their fathers taught them dangerous magics, God became angry and ordered their destruction." I kept my face carefully blank during Daniel's explanation.

"You're really half angel?" Jack O'Neill asked.

"Yes."

"But how?" Max asked.

I sighed, "Well, y'see when Daddy Angel really loves Mommy Human-"

"Okay fine but I mean-"

"How did _I_ survive?" She nodded.

"I don't really know, I was badly wounded I imagine they left me for dead."

"Okay not to burst everyone's bubble here but assuming that A) Angels are real and B) you are not a crazy person which I'm thinking is a pretty big assumption why would God allow you to live?"

"I don't think he did. I think he ordered his hosts to punish us and they did."

"Punish you?"

I shrugged.

"Look I don't know why they let me live, don't care either, they did, I keep to myself and let well enough alone –"

"You wanted a weapon, there was an angel, it scared you, it came close to you its name was . . ." Max said excitedly. I felt a cold sweat on my back.

"It was Kushiel." I backed away from them.

"A weapon? Sergeant-" Jack started to say addressing Max.

"I wanted an Angelic weapon to defend myself General, is that so hard to understand? I'm sure your doctor has an extensive medical file on me, d'you know what gave me that scar on my chest and back? The war spear of my father Kushiel, Archangel of Punishment, war leader of the Host seventeen years ago my dear old murderous dad showed up in Seacouver, seventeen years ago I asked Max to get Macleod to help me find an Angelic weapon, he refused, I tried to run she stopped me, I drove her away and . . . . well never mind the rest. The point is I don't have the weapon, and I didn't come to Colorado for it either, I came to apologize to Max."

"If you came here to apologize to me how did you end up in a coma?" Max asked.

"One of the tricks of the trade backfired on me."

"How did some private eye tactic land you in a coma for seven years? A coma from which you recovered with well, miraculous speed, if I didn't know better I'd say you were goa'uld." The doctor rambled on. Jack shot the doctor an irritated glance.

"What? They're all dead and he's half angel sir, I hardly think he's a security risk, and if he is well then how do you propose to stop him?"

"Hang on, your father is angel of punishment? That doesn't seem very holy."

I smiled vaguely finally a smart human.

"I didn't say he was god's angel." I sighed.

"What?" Max asked.

"When my father led the hosts against us he was God's instrument but he turned against God, he followed the Morningstar's rebellion."

"Okay so you're saying that your father is a demon?" Daniel asked.

"You might want to capitalize that D sport." I grunted.

"Pardon?"

"He's no minor imp or temptation demon, he isn't an incubus or soul bargainer, he is a prince of hell and he leads Lucifer's army."

"Oh brilliant, can we get him an Angelic weapon now Jack?" Max asked. I blinked, her tone was reproving, not pleading.

"Oh you minx, you absolutely devious person you played me like a freaking fish, has it really been seven years?"

"Eh sorry Simon, no its been about a week, you put Daniel in the infirmary with your poking though, honestly when will you learn to run an address search online? Seriously it would make your life a lot easier."

"Boy you lot can act." I grunted.

"It's never been hard to fool you Simon, you still can't tell human emotions very well."

"Well it's not as though I've had much practice."

"Oh you liar one hundred thousand years and not much practice?"

I sneered at her girlish laughter.

"Yeah well the majority of that wasn't even on this planet, and the bit that was I mostly spent running from you lot not learning how to tell what your squishy faces can mean."

"Yeah yeah all talk."

"Hey I can fly y'know." I said and grinned. The relief and satisfaction filling me were novel feelings, very enjoyable I had dearly missed my immortal friend.

"Yeah? Show me." I cut a glance at the gathered humans.

"Oh don't worry about them, I've told them all about you. Jack and Danny here'v saved my life a couple three times, they're safe."

I decided to live a little, even Daddy dearest would think twice about coming for me here. So I did it, I unfurled my wings in front of humans, for the first time in centuries. It felt wonderful to simply be I went a step further and let my power show through. My skin lightened to a true gold, my eyes darkened until they reflected like seawater and my hair went shear white. I also grew about a foot.

"You like?"

"Oh my –"

"Don't say it Max, he'll hear and it will be very very bad."

"Uh wow so yeah Nephilim okay." Jack babbled.

"I'm guessing you don't do . . . _that_ much." Daniel said.

"No, not really." I said and pulled my power back I left the wings but appeared more human.

"You scared the hell out of me that night asshole."

"Hey watch your tone I'm demi-angelic."

"Er don't you mean demi-demonic?"

"No, demons are angels, just on the opposite side, besides when Kushiel had my mother he was an Angel, in God's service." The room fell silent.

"Well sir, he doesn't need any medical care so I'd say it's all in your court." The doc said with a smirk and excused herself.

"Great what am I supposed to do with you now?"

"Well, you could let me go or I could leave."

"Aren't those the same things?"

"No, see you can let me go or you can not let me go and I'll leave anyway."

"Uh yeah I s'pose, Daniel?"

"Sorry Jack he's a Nephilim nothing we can do."

"Well aren't you helpful."

"General if you're worried about the Stargate program don't be, I've known about it since the Ancients put their first prototype on the surface of the Earth."

"Come again?"

"I've kept tabs on you and yours this is my home now, this little blue green planet and I don't want to move house again, not so soon anyway. So yeah I know about all the times you saved the earth from invasion or annihilation in the nick of time, all the good and mischief you've done out there in the big bad galaxy and for the record, thanks."

"Oh. So I guess you'll be going then?"

"Yep, coming Max?"

"No, why would I?"

"I dunno, figured you might be bored battling zealot aliens, want to turn your hand to demon fighting. Game?"

"You haven't got a weapon."

"I know."

"You're crazy Simon. You go ahead and show all these people your power on my word alone, you trust them to let you go you . . . you're reckless."

"No, I'm powerful and impatient, believe it or not but this has all been very hasty for me Max. Now, you can go with me and leave this place and your friends for a very long time and we can travel to amazing places beyond stars and earth or, you can stay here and keep doing what at least four other people in this installation are capable of. Your call."

"Leave me alone Simon. I'm happy here."

"Okay if you change your mind well there's really no way to contact me but I'll stop back by from time to time."

"What's wrong with a cell phone?"

"Lots can I have my clothes back?"

"Uh no, they're being . . . analyzed."

"Analyzed?"

"Well you aren't human and I didn't recognize you when you were brought in which by the way only happened because your collapse and Daniel's happened at the same time, so they had to figure out if you're a threat."

"Yeah well I am but not at the moment. So can I have _some_ clothes?"

"You're all powerful and you want us to give you some clothes?"

"Well, if you want me to walk out your front door butt naked, or better yet fly-"

"Knock if off Simon we'll find you something. Are you going to put those away?" She asked nodding at my wings.

"Well, yeah, eventually, I like them though don't you think they suit me?"

"I suppose they do." She said and laughed. I stretched my beautiful crimson wings and beat them three times the wind was enough to knock down the curtain around the immediate area. As it fell it revealed a much larger room, filled with wounded and bandaged humans. They were cut, shot, burned, and sick.

I froze with wings spread. The wounded regarded me with awe, with fear, and with weary resignation.

"What happened here?" I demanded.

"An attack sir." One of the wounded said. He was a young man in his early twenties. He wore a battered uniform similar to the General's although neither were general issue to any of the American forces.

"From what, something from the stargate?"

"Simon this doesn't concern you." Max argued. I could see fear in her eyes, that was bad, very bad, Max isn't afraid of much.

"Max listen to me, I lost my world, my entire existence was torn away from me, that will not happen again, Earth and its people are all I have left now. I don't care about Kushiel, Lucifer, or God himself. I will keep this people and this planet safe. So you tell me what happened here, you tell me what could do this to the personnel of the SGC."

"Do you know about the Ori?"

"Sergeant he doesn't have clearance." Jack interrupted.

"Jack-"

"So I'll tell him, I'm overdue for retirement but no one wants my job, too much blame so I will tell him, Danny get back to work if you don't mind." Daniel nodded and left the crowded room. It was a large room but it was crammed with damaged humans. I folded my wings to my back and followed the general out of the room.

"Wait!" Max shouted I turned and she thrust a bundle of clothing into my hands.

"Shirt is optional." She said and turned away, she picked up a weapon from another uniformed woman and the two headed away. I slipped on the undergarments and pants the shirt just wasn't going to work with the wings. So I followed the General, bare-chested and barefoot, my muscular pale chest and crimson wings caught a few stares but most of the personnel we passed were exhausted, harried, and uninterested. It was odd.

"In here." The general said, he led me up a flight of stairs through a control room filled with machinery and computers and further up. The room was largish, dominated by a long table and seven or eight chairs. I sat careful no to crush my feathers and waited patiently.

"You ever heard of the Ori?"

"No."

"You know about Ascended beings?"

"Yes, the Ancients became Ascended to save their race they thought they had no choice."

"They had another?"

"Doesn't matter now, what about the Ori?"

"The Ori are also ascended only they get humans to worship them, promise them paradise and then feed off their energy. They're tyrants. They're converting the universe, by word if possible but anyone who resists is slaughtered. We've had limited success against them but they're getting stronger, and we're getting weaker."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Help us fight them."

"How?"

"However you want to, guns, bombs, our most advanced technology bounces off them, we've had some luck with cloaking technologies but nothing offensive."

"I don't know how I do what I do, I just do it, I can't teach it to you and I doubt your tests could figure it out either, assuming I wanted to be part of them. I've never used a gun and most of my abilities are rusty since using them attracts the wrong sort of attention."

"What if we could take you off world?"

"Yeah that might work."

"Okay we take you to the alpha site you practice whatever you need and then what?"

"Kick Ori ass?"

"How long do you need?"

"I don't know, how long have we got?"

"Days maybe."

"What is the real situation here? I do have one or two tricks that might just work temporarily."

"The Ori have taken the last free Jaffa planet, our people were there defending it."

"Send me there."

"You just said there wasn't much you could do."

"Yeah well I lied a little bit. There is something I can do, it'll be dangerous, considering my current state it might kill me but I won't have another world die under me come on then, time's a wasting." I stood up and headed for the door.

"Its down here somewhere isn't it?" Jack looked flummoxed but nodded and lead the way.

We stopped at the little room below the briefing area.

"Dial the battle site." Jack ordered. The crew looked at him like a lunatic but obeyed. He led me down to the gate and we watched as the gate activated.

"You know I've never actually been through one of these."

"Yeah? Its not so bad, landings a bitch though."

"Wish me luck General. Give me an hour and send a probe or something for me if I'm not dead the Ori should be, course I suppose we could both be dead. I dunno. Anyway, one hour."

"Good luck."

"Thanks but I think luck is going to avoid this one." I spread my wings and charged the open gate.


	7. Healing

The trip while instant rattled my senses and left me tumbling through the sky toward the ground I managed to slow my descent enough to avoid a catastrophic landing. Weapons fire lit up the sky around me and as I descended their aim improved and began to carve up the light woodlands engulfing me. Tree trunks shattered and splintered, foliage burst into flame and earth tossed skyward as the heavy weapons converged on me.

I darted through the trees toward the weapons fire as I grew closer I crouched and leapt skyward, my wings snatched at the air lifting me and sending me shooting skyward, faster than the weapons batteries could follow. I spotted dozens of armed soldiers, they were armored similarly to medieval knights but their helms were a strange design. I banked and dodged trying to locate the center of their forces. Finally I spotted what looked like a beachhead or headquarters.

I headed straight up I needed to have enough height to glide down without concentrating on flight, what I needed to do would take all the residual energy in my body, my core was still dank and cold, although I believed in time it would recover. These Ori needed to be delayed I would _not_ watch another world die under my feet.

I headed up until the clouds enclosed me. And the ground below was lost. I spread my wings out and began gliding down in a slow spiral. I closed my eyes and spread my arms, focusing inward and drawing my energy into my chest. I envisioned a sphere of power I concentrated on it until I could feel heat in my chest I opened my eyes, the sphere was real, it was about eight feet in diameter and growing larger. It was a pulsing mass of light, crimson and gold in color. I drifted closer to the ground and the enemy fire increased. I increased my focus, forcing more and more energy into it; I began to feel frail but ignored my physical weakness. Finally when my vision began to gray I released the sphere.

The blast would have rivaled a small tactical nuclear explosion. The shockwave threw me skyward. My vision faded out and I lost consciousness falling like a stone. I rocketed downward, the dust, smoke and debris of the explosion rained down around me as I entered the dust cloud. I hit the ground with enough force to drive my body several inches into the dirt. The falling debris covered me in a quarter inch of powdered dirt. I lay like a corpse for a very long time.

"Sir the MALP has discovered a massive crater." Sam said reviewing the data transmitted by the probe.

"Signs of life?" Jack asked.

"Hard to tell sir there's residual heat from the explosion and some unusual radiation emissions."

"Radiation?"

"Nothing harmful sir, just unusual for the area."

"Okay go take a look."

"Yes sir."

SG-1 entered the smoking rubble of the former battlefield with a sense of awe.

"Simon did this?" Daniel asked Max.

"I guess, I mean it's not like we were watching. I don't know what else could have done it." She frowned as a new surge of concern wafted over her. The land was scorched and blasted as far as the horizon.

"How large is the area of devastation?" Daniel asked Sam.

"Roughly ten square miles."

"Impressive." Teal'c said.

"Yeah well, let's see if Simons alive shall we?" Max said bitterly. She took point and kept her weapon ready. The Ori could not be trusted.

They traveled in a straight horizontal line with ten feet between each of them. They made good time and searched methodically but after two hours they radioed for back up there was simply too much to cover, and Sam wanted better scans of the energy readings and damage estimates. As more personnel arrived the search increased in pace and detail.

"Sir! I've got something!" One of the searchers shouted to Daniel. The Egyptologist hurried over to the airman. The younger man was pointing at something red in the dark gray brown powdered earth a crimson iridescent feather.

"Sam we've got him." Daniel keyed and hurried over. It took him a few seconds to pull me free of the earth.

"Get the medics over here! He isn't breathing!" Daniel shouted. He laid me out and tried to do CPR. After a minute the medics arrived and took over.

"He isn't breathing." Daniel said to Max and Sam while stepping out of the way and allowing the Medics to work.

"He doesn't breathe." Max said impatiently. They gave her skeptical looks.

"Not human remember? Look he can breathe and he usually does because it freaks people out if he doesn't but he doesn't have to." She snapped and shoved the medics away.

"He needs to be intubated." One of the medics argued.

"He's got ten foot wings guys, not human remember?" Max growled. She knelt in the dirt and pulled my shoulders and head into her lap.

"Hey wake up stupid, you did it." She whispered and patted my face. She frowned and pulled her canteen off her belt. She opened a prepackaged bandage from her personal medical kit and used it and the water to clean my face off. She checked my pulse.

"He's got a pulse."

"What should we do?" Sam asked Max frowned in thought.

"I think he's just drained, he said that the energy needed to do this might kill him. Maybe he just needs power."

"What kind? Electrical?" Sam asked. The team crouched next to Max in the powdered dirt, careful to avoid my outstretched wings.

"I don't think so, I mean it will probably work, but he's been around a lot longer than electricity. Maybe solar?" she asked. Sam nodded.

"Makes sense, the suns always been available. Maybe we can use electricity to speed it up."

"How? Electrocute him?"

"No, give me your flashlights." Sam said, she cannibalized her radio and managed to string the batteries from the team's flashlights together. She borrowed Max's bandage and canteen to scrub my forearm clean; she pressed the jury rigged power source to my arm and turned it on. There was a loud crack and the gizmo smoked and failed.

"Do you have a defibrillator?" She asked the medics. They nodded and handed it over. Sam tossed away her make shift gizmo and went to work on the defibrillator. As she worked the small amount of power she had thrust into my system, barely an iota of what I would need suffused my system. It was just enough to stir my mind. I began to breathe.

"Its working he's breathing now." Max said relieved.

"You said he doesn't need to." Daniel pointed out.

"He doesn't but it's a kind of reflex, he grew up around humans, who breathe, he's hidden among humans, if he doesn't breathe it isn't immediately noticeable but it weirds people out so think of it as a defense mechanism, an instinctive camouflage."

"Huh, strange." Daniel said.

Sam attached the modified defibrillator to my arm and powered it on, the charge slowly increased, pumping me with the inferior but useful energy, I drained the unit in four seconds flat and sat.

"That sucked, could you tell that guy to get off my wing?" I asked.

A curious medic had strayed onto my still buried left wing. The medic blushed crimson and leapt to the side. I flexed my wings and allowed Sam and Max to get me to my feet. I didn't have the strength to fold my wings closed so they dragged behind me in the dirt.

"Thanks." I said trying to let the guy off the hook, he'd meant well. He found some task to busy himself with near the gate and hurried off. I had to lean on Max and Sam to make it to the gate.

"That energy won't last. I need sunlight." I grunted as I struggled to drag my lead heavy legs through the swirling dust of the superheated dirt.

"Will UV lighting work?"

"I don't know, don't think so." I grunted. My body hurt, like I'd overused or torn every muscle and strained every joint. Clouds of dust were being stirred up by my wings and there was still three or four miles to go to the gate. I paused and caught my breath. Max used a tourniquet and oversized bandage from her med kit to fold and bind my wings. I smiled in gratitude. If nothing else my balance improved with the reallocation of the weight.

"Okay Daniel you and Teal'c head back update the general, the med team and Max will get Simon back to the gate, I'll stay here and supervise the site survey." A medic replaced Sam on my right side and Max stuck to my left.

"We could carry you out on a stretcher sir." A medic offered I laughed.

"I'm six foot six kid and my legs work, no I don't think so." Truth was I doubted they could lift me. For some reason I've never worked out I weigh a hell of a lot more for my height and size than an equivalent human would. Like a factor of ten. I wasn't sure how Max had managed to lift me but she had.

"Sir I'm sure we could." The medic said. It occurred to me that neither Max nor the medic were having much trouble guiding and supporting me.

"I appreciate it but I'd rather walk." I said. He nodded. I was still barefoot and most of my pants had been shredded by shrapnel from the blast but the ground was soft and still slightly warm so walking wasn't painful. I suppose the amount of energy I usually contained may have contributed to my mass, which would have increased my weight. Still I really did prefer to walk, at least until the jolt from the defibrillator faded, then they would have to carry me.

As soon as I finished that thought a stripe of agony rocketed through me, from my gut to my chest I was on fire. I screamed and threw my arms out knocking Max and the medic to the ground. I dropped to my knees and clutched my torso. The fire increased and raged in my chest, I threw my head back and howled as a burst of greenish light vaulted out of my throat and into the sky. I fell backwards onto my wings and felt the light hollow bones snap like dry twigs.

"What the fuck was that?!" The medic demanded getting to his feet.

"I'm guessing the power wasn't compatible." Max said. She crawled over to me and checked me over again.

"Not breathing again, but he's got a pulse; we'll have to carry him." Max said.

"Sergeant?" The radio crackled.

"Colonel it's me, its okay, it was Simon, I think the power was incompatible, he's unconscious again, and we'll have to carry him."

"Understood, I'll send some hands your way."

"Come on; help me roll him onto his stomach, I think he broke some bones when he fell." Max said. They rolled me face down and she checked me over.

"What do you think? Splint them now or wait?"

"I'm guessing wait, it shouldn't take us long to get to the gate and we can do a better job there, plus I don't think he'll appreciate the pain the reset will cause if we do it out here without anesthetic."

"Okay."

They levered me into a two man chair lift where they locked wrists to form a 'chair' and used their free hands to steady me. Pretty impressive considering I was over a foot taller than Max plus the added awkwardness of the wings. The medic was a big guy but it was still a lot to deal with. I stayed aware enough to watch my self and the people around me but my body was unconscious. I was tethered to it so couldn't stray or I'd risk real death but I was content to watch.

They reached the gate, having met a stretcher team a mile or so after picking me up. The team had laid me out on my stomach and taken over the carrying for awhile. Max and the medic chatted.

"So what did he do?"

"Not sure. He's a powerful guy, I guess he could've just let go of his power y'know?"

"I guess so, what is he?"

"Not human Airman, don't worry about the rest, he's on our side, as devoted to earth as we are."

"Yes M'am, it's just, well, he looks like an angel."

"Don't call him that."

"Why?"

"Trust me if he hears you call him that, it would be a bad thing."

"Noted."

They swapped with their replacements and kept walking the four rotated frequently. They reached the gate and hauled me through, I was afraid of being separated from them so I popped back into my unconscious battered self for the trip. The same doc was waiting in the gate room she and Max talked quietly.

They transferred me to a gurney and headed up. I stayed close not wanting to get distracted and have problems getting back to me. Max and the doctor were talking intently, exchanging ideas and theories about my need for sunlight. I don't know the why of it just the fact of it. I can go hundreds of years without sunlight but if my core is depleted then I have to have it or I won't be able to recover my strength only once had I done something like this before.

They hauled me into a parking lot and left me in the sun. As I absorbed the sun and woke up the doctor and Max began untying my wings and trying to straighten and splint the bones. I groaned and opened my eyes.

"Remind me why again it is that I did that?" I asked blearily.

"Hey big guy, the fate of the world."

"Oh yeah, what are you doing?"

"You broke most of the bones in your wings when you fell."

"I fell?" One of the side effects of popping in and out was losing massive chunks of memory.

"Yeah buddy you did." Max was holding my right hand and sweeping hair out of my face. I winced as someone stretched a wing out.

"Do you want some pain killers?"

"No, they don't work very well." I gasped and ground my teeth.

"If you hide the wings or re-absorb them whatever it is you do will they still be broken when you bring them back?"

"If I pull them in the breaks will transfer to my ribs, at least I can breathe with broken wings." She laughed and squeezed my hand.

"Okay then. I'm right here." It took hours to straighten and splint the wings. They brought up a portable battlefield X-ray machine and everything. I drifted off to sleep toward the end. The sunlight was wonderful, in spite of the spasms of agony rocketing through my shoulders and back I began to relax. I felt familiar warmth in my chest and a renewed strength in my limbs.

I heard another person approach the crowd around me and stopped. I listened to it breathe and shift its weight.

"General good to see you."

"How's he doing?"

"He's getting stronger, the wings will take time to heal but otherwise he'll be fine."

"How do you feel Simon?" By way of answer I stood up. My wings were stretched out, a makeshift support frame was strapped to my torso holding them upright and spread. Plaster and gauze swathed them.

"I'll live. Couple days for the wings and then I'll be fine." The general nodded, he looked exhausted.

"Can't say the same for you huh?" He smiled.

"I have people who are depending on me, I've lost fifty men and women, twice that are down with injuries and I have five MIAs including a member of SG-1. So sleep isn't high on my list."

"I get that." I said and gripped the soldier's forearm.

He flinched at the contact and then his eyes widened. I can loan people energy, the sun was bright enough and hot enough that I had enough to spare for a short while anyway so I gave some to O'Neill. I gave him enough that he could go another forty-eight hours sharp eyed and bushy tailed. But it cost me more than I anticipated. I broke contact and staggered slightly. O'Neill stepped back and glared at me.

I put one hand to my head and another on the gurney. Max put a hand on my shoulder.

"Sorry General it's just a little boost, won't hurt you."

"Look Simon I've had all kinds of people, and things poke around in my head and do weird things to me, if this bites me in the ass in anyway you are so gonna get it." He snarled. I was beginning to regret my impulsive act of kindness.

"It won't General, it's just a little pick me up, you'll be able to function happily and with all your faculties for another forty-eight hours."

"And then?"

"You'll crash, only instead of crashing today or early tomorrow it'll be in two days, if you want to you could lie down this second and sleep, avoid it all, the choice is yours." He glared at me for another moment.

"And you?"

"I'll be fine, the sun's still up." It was a white lie, the act had cost me more than just sun energy but he didn't need to know that. I staggered with Max's help over to a low retaining wall that surrounded the parking lot I sat carefully and Max sat next to me. The doctor took the hint and gathered her people and equipment up.

I sat there in companionable silence with Max until the sun started to arc toward the mountainous horizon.

"Simon?"

"Yeah?"

"I missed you, ten years is still ten years."

"I know I'm sorry, I had an angel after me, I was sitting on the bottom o fthe Pacific ocean for most of that time."

"Really?" I nodded and turned my face to catch the very last gleams of sunlight.

"Did you know that immortals can breathe underwater?" Max asked.

"No actually that's news, are you suggesting we go for a little trip sometime?" She laughed and shook her head.

"No, that deep the pressure would kill me, just saying, I'm not human either, if y'know, you wanna talk."

I smiled and put a battered arm over her strong shoulders.

"You'll be the first to know if I do." She snuggled close to me, carefully avoiding my damaged wings.

Once the last of the sunlight was gone she helped me to my feet and we went downstairs.

"I imagine Jack'll want to talk to you now." I nodded.

"Yes I guess he will." I was quite surprised the weary general had not yet braced me on just how I had managed to destroy a good portion of that planet single handedly.

We made it downstairs uneventfully. Max let me go after a bit, it was nearly impossibly for the two of us to walk side by side with my wings in that contraption so she led the way. The few SGC personnel we encountered looked at me, at the wings, at Max and stepped aside. I brushed a wall once, just once, and it was so painful it drove me to my knees. I waved Max away as she moved to help and got to my feet on my own. She took me to Jack's office. He was on the phone when we arrived.

I sat very cautiously on one of the chairs in the room and caught my breath. Jack continued speaking urgently to whoever was on the phone.

"No the entire Ori beachhead has been eliminated we're safe for the moment, no sir I can't tell you how, I don't really know yet. Well I think it's safe to say we have a new ally, no sir I wouldn't advise that, we cannot absolutely guarantee the security of the SGC yet. Yes sir I understand. Thank you sir." He hung up and sat down at his desk roughly.

"Ah, Max, Simon." I nodded.

"Thought you might like to ask me some questions."

'I've got Carter's report on the site and an explanation of Carter's report, I've got the doc's report but I still don't understand what you did."

"I used my energy, my power, the core of my . . . essence I guess you could say, well what little I had left after having my psychic brains smashed in by you Egyptologist, for the record he could be a hell of a psychic, and I used that energy. I forced it out of me, forced it to focus and combine and then, well then, I let it go."

"That wasn't all of your energy?"

"No, it was all I had though."

"Okay here's how the report is going to read you brought us new technology capable of creating an explosive I'll have Carter polish it up on the science stuff, you cannot put down that you alone caused all that damage."

"Why?"

"Because we aren't the only ones who read those reports and there are humans on this planet that would love to get their hands and scalpels on you."

"Ah, well then, fair enough."

"You can stay here until you heal if you want."

"Okay and after that?"

"I don't know, I suppose we could try to keep you on." I nodded. I suspected the good General would love to keep me on, but he was a righteous man and if he kept me on he would have to come clean to his superiors about me, which could lead to me being put in a very bad spot eventually. I let it go I was sleepy again anyway.

Max helped me up and showed me to guest quarters. I stretched out face down on an uncomfortable twin bed complete with scratchy wool blanket and passed out.

I woke before dawn and headed up again. I sat soaking in the sun until noon. My wings had begun to itch and burn so I removed the lattice holding them up and out and began peeling the bandages off. They hurt and I had to stop several times and wait until the waves of pain faded but then I began again. I sat there until early afternoon when Max arrived. I was leaning against the retaining wall sunbathing and ignoring the curious stares of transiting personnel.

"Nice mess." I opened my eyes and met the eyes of the kind doctor.

"Hi, yeah they itched."

"Well I don't know about you but in humans that's a good sign."

"Yeah I should be able to put these away soon, lose some height too, generally blend in better."

"Oh I don't know about that, I think you probably stand out just a little bit wherever you go."

"Well, yeah I do a bit. Y'know I never caught your name."

"Doctor Carolyn Lam."

"Nice to meet you Carolyn Lam." I said and offered my hand. She smiled and shook.

"Are you going to stay?"

"What? Find me useful?"

"Well you and Max are about the only people here I don't have to worry about." There was a massive grief in her voice.

"Who did you lose?" I asked kindly.

"My father was the installation commander, he died defending the gate room. He isn't the only one, the commander of SG-1 has gone missing, at least fifty are dead dozens and dozens more wounded. I can't save them all so I thought I'd find someone to talk to."

"Really? And you chose me? Why?"

"Because, I don't know, because you're basically immortal, you've been there done that, and I think you're a good man."

"I'm not a man at all." She smiled.

"Yes well that's debatable." She said and laughed.

"Oh, right doctor you uh, checked me out then?" She nodded.

"Okay then I'm a man, but I'm not human."

"No you are certainly not human."

"I'm sorry about your father." I said and I was I liked humans and Landry had at the least been a competent leader whose followers loved him no mean feat. She seemed weary on a fundamental level.

"You're needed here, you know that? Not just for the injured from this attack. You serve a fundamental purpose, a healer should be more than just a bone knitter and you are."

"How do you know?" She asked incredulously.

"Just do."

"Sorry I don't buy that."

"Okay, just don't resign over this take some time if you like but you shouldn't resign."

"You are so odd."

"I've got a twenty foot wingspan, the ability to scorch ten square miles of open land and you think I'm odd because I give you personal advice? Been at the SGC long?" She laughed out loud.

"Good point, and thank you. Would you like me to check your wings?"

"Not necessary, I think you're needed downstairs at the moment." I stood up and stretched, my wings rustled slightly in the warm air. She nodded.

"Mmm you're right, again, see you around?"

"Oh most likely." I said and watched her leave.

My wings still hurt but they were more bruised than broken. So I pulled up my power and forced flesh to knit to flesh. It hurt more than it ever had before but it worked. The wings pulled inward and faded against my skin. I also dropped thirty pounds of muscle and five inches, my hair and skin darkened, and my eyes became a less alarming blue. I stretched and winced, the ribs of my upper back ached and throbbed, badly bruised as I had guessed. I shrugged then and headed inside. The guards stopped me.

"Uh yeah, see I'm the guy with the wings?"

"Sir, you do not have wings and we do not recognize you."

"Well that's only because I've lost the wings, and gotten shorter and skinnier and darker and . . . okay I see your point. Could you ask Sergeant Holloway to come up here?" I asked as they cuffed me.

I allowed them to cuff me. I find the killing of earth humans abhorrent, and short of doing that I wasn't sure how else I could get the security forces to release me. A show of power would only alarm them and convince them that I was a threat. So I let them cuff me and haul me away to a detention cell.

I had a nap while I waited I honestly didn't see it taking more than an hour or so for O'Neill or Max to come spring me. It took five.

"Seriously Max what took so long?"

"Well it's not like they tell me about every single person who gets cuffed trying to stick their nose where it doesn't belong."

"Well I did tell them to go get you."

"I was busy."

"Fine can you let me out now?"

"Yes but we'll need your biometrics."

"My bio-whats?"

"Metrics, retinal scan, finger prints, voice pattern, so this doesn't happen again."

"Yeah, I don't know if that will work."

"Why not?"

"Do I have to constantly remind you I'm not human?"

"Neither is Teal'c and we've got his biometrics."

"Okay fine give it a try." I grumbled. She let me out and led me over to a desk equipped with several scanners.

"Okay Airman Crale here is going to take your photo and other information."

"I haven't got a social security number, so don't bother." I grumbled. She smirked at me. They had me sit on an uncomfortable plastic chair and stare at a line, there were several clicks and then I did an oral questionnaire for the voice match, finally fingerprints and a retinal scan.

"How long will it take to process?"

"Less than an hour m'am." The airman said.

"So how can you lot spare one airman for all that if you're in the midst of a crisis?" I asked as we left.

"Well for one thanks to you the crisis is on hold, and we've called up a few more reserves so to speak."

"Yes well still. So what now?"

"You hungry?" She asked. I smirked.

"Yeah I can eat, is it worthwhile?"

"Oh damn I forgot you don't need to eat."

"Tell you what I'll keep you company if you answer some questions for me."

"Okay." She said and led me through the maze of rooms and hallways to the 'dining facility' she muttered something about chow hall and led me inside.

She dished up a heaping helping of something called mustard chicken and mashed potatoes. The mustard was suspiciously yellow and clumpy. I decided I wouldn't be partaking in the 'feast'.

"What do you want to know?"

"First off, does that taste good?"

"Actually yes, although whether that's compared to the other food they serve or its tasty all by itself I couldn't really say."

"Yeah well enjoy. Don't you get tired of having to eat everyday?"

"Er no, not really don't you get tired of sitting in the sun every day?"

"Oh well I don't have to do it everyday just when I'm feeling drained or weak."

"Oh, huh I guess it could be boring for you then, eating I mean."

"Okay so tell me about the Stargate and all of your adventures."

"Don't think I have clearance for that." She said, I gave her a look.

"What? I don't. Besides you said you kept tabs on the stargate program."

"Well yes I did except for those ten years I was stuck at the bottom of the sea."

"Well things only really took off ten years ago. Daniel got the gate working, they pissed off Apophis and well it's been a rollercoaster ever since."

"C'mere." I said she gave me a look. I picked up a napkin and brandished it at her.

"You've got something on your face." As she leaned forward I gripped her chin in my left hand and locked eyes with her. I SAW everything she had experienced at the SGC since being dragged there several years before by her friend Adam, her battle with Aknar and the adventures and battles since. I sighed and released her I mopped a spot of chicken mustard off her cheek and sat back.

"Where were we?"

"You were convincing me to not ask you about the Stargate."

"Was it working?"

"Temporarily, are you really happy here?"

"Yeah I am."

"You don't miss Seacouver?"

"Nah, Seacouver's just a place I miss Adam and even Mac sometimes." I felt a strange unfamiliar feeling, jealousy I think or hurt.

"Did you miss me?"

"Sometimes, look you scared the shit out of me that night, I hated you sometimes and resented you but, yeah I missed you too."

"Oh. Sorry again about that, I was scared, and I panicked."

"You were trying to protect me and keep your skin its okay."

"No it isn't I was scared, more scared than I've been since the war. All I could think or see was my family slaughtered and torn apart. All I could feel was fear. I doubt Kushiel even remembers me but I remember him and just thinking about him and that day fills me with dread. So I did the unforgivable I attacked a friend, the closest thing I've had to family in a hundred thousand years or more, and I'm sorry for that Max, more sorry than any human language can describe." I took her hand and studied her lowered face intently. She looked up at me and a tear trembled in the corner of her eye.

"I am sorry Max, for not trusting you, I am sorry Max for not believing in you, I am sorry Max for leaving you, I am sorry Max for driving you off." I murmured. She squeezed my hand and wiped at the tear.

"Okay, now I like you better." She said laughing through her tears. I grinned at her.

"Let me try some of that." I stole a bit of the chicken and made a face.

"Well its edible, is this one of the better dishes they serve you lot?" She nodded, I made a face and put the fork down.

"Simon?"

"Yes Max." I said leaning closer to her.

"Are you going to stay here?"

"Yeah, why not these Ori have designs on my planet, I can't say I like that." She grinned and dug into her meal again.

Later that day O'Neill appeared.

"Rumor has it you want to stay with us."

"Yes I do. I guess that's going to cause some problems for you."

"I don't think it will be too bad. With General Landry dead I sort of took over here, I'm also the Stargate liaison with Washington."

"Ah, rather powerful then?"

"Nah not really but as long as no one else realizes that I'm good."

"You still pissed at me?"

"Yes."

"But you're willing to let me stay here and help?"

"Yes."

"Okay." I said and backed off.


	8. Instinctual Echoes

I ended up down in the infirmary helping Dr. Lam with the patients. It was in some cases gruesome and thankless, others were pathetic, heartbreaking, men and women so injured survival was impossible and so pitifully grateful for the small kindness of a hand being held or a brow mopped. As I labored I clarified my feelings for humanity, my love of humanity, I understood why God loved them and cherished them. They were deeply flawed but in the end with rare exceptions good.

"How's it going?" I asked Lam as I returned from a trip to the laundry to pick up bandages and clean bedding.

"We've lost three in the ICU." I sighed and gripped her hand briefly.

"You're too fragile, so noble and determined but so fragile." I muttered. She squeezed my hand back. I began to distribute food to the less injured and those on the mend. Many more would die in the night.

"Have you thought of a medevac?" I asked upon returning to the doctor's station. Lam smiled grimly.

"We have the best facilities and resources here all ready and there is also a fear of viruses or bacteria being spread from the injured."

"Shame." I murmured and went back to work.

I decided to try something. If my little burst of energy had given Jack the strength to continue working at a breakneck pace for two days after doing so for who knew how long, then maybe I could save some of these people. Maybe I could give the ones teetering on the edge enough strength to pull through.

I paused in thought, how to do it? If I did an energy sphere I would destroy Cheyenne Mountain. I thought back to O'Neill, I smiled and headed for the critical section. I began to take vitals but every wrist, every forehead, every hand and every cheek I touched or brushed I empowered. By the time I reached the end I was feeling tired but otherwise well. I moved onto the less critical and then to the lightly wounded. Each human felt the exchange but didn't know what it entailed.

For that matter neither did I. I could for instance be transferring enough power to grant them extra long lives, I really didn't know, I just knew that I couldn't stand by and watch all these brave, noble, stupid, humans die.

I finished the whole infirmary except the ICU, Lam was in the ICU and I didn't want her stopping me. I waited until she left to check charts on less critical patients and slipped in. I felt light headed and nauseous but I wasn't done. There were ten people in the ICU they were hideously burned, crushed, shot and all near death. One by one I transferred to them one by one until my vision had gone wobbly and my knees felt watery. I was on the last one when Lam returned.

"Simon I've got-" She froze looking up from a chart.

I had one hand on a dying woman's shoulder, the other was bunched in her bedclothes, I was struggling not to panic, pass out or lose control. A soft golden glow surrounded my hand where it contacted the woman.

"It's almost done Carolyn." I begged. She scowled and drew a weapon from under her coat.

"Let go of her Simon or I'll shoot you."

"You swore an oath to do no harm, besides I'm not hurting anyone."

"You'll live." She snapped.

"Have it your way." I grunted wearily and released the woman. If I released much more energy I'd be back at square one. She ordered me out of the ICU and had the corridor guards arrest me.

"You're making a mistake Carolyn." I insisted.

"It's Dr. Lam Simon." She growled and nodded for the guards to haul me off. I let them I was tired and weak and confused. They locked me in a cell complete with bars and two types of force fields. I wasn't sure I could get out even if I had the strength or desire. I collapsed on the small hard bunk available and slept. A boot to my back woke me up.

I fell off the bunk and hit the ground. I glared around and spotted Jack.

"Nice manners General." I growled and got to my feet. He was furious.

"What did you do to my wounded?"

"Saved their lives I imagine." I muttered. I felt much better; I guessed it was possible I had just tired myself instead of using my core energy. I looked inward to check and was pleased to feel a small fierce pulse; yes I was only physically tired.

"Do not push me General I could destroy this entire mountain if it suited me, but it doesn't. I love Earth and her people, even the irritating ones who like to kidney punch me when I'm sleeping. I nearly died to save your planet General remember that."

"What did you do!" He demanded.

"I gave them energy, power, enough hopefully to pull them through was that such a crime?"

"The same thing you did to me?"

"Yeah." I said and glared.

"I want you off this installation."

"Oh come on General even you are not that foolish. You cannot afford to throw me away. I'm too powerful, too useful, send me to the Ori home world if you like, I'll kill them all, and probably myself in the process but don't you dare attempt to separate me from the stargate, I will _not_ have this planet lost."

"I don't trust you."

"Good you shouldn't I'm half angel which means I'm the most ruthless creature you'll ever meet you think the Goa'uld are bad? At least they have emotions, a megalomaniac still has desires all an Angel cares about is sex and violence, yeah they're holy all right because they're controlled. Even the Ori don't have a patch on them so do not threaten me Jack O'Neill or I'll wipe you off the face of the earth. You see its humanity and the earth as a whole I care about I could take Max and anyone else I care about well out of here before then and we'd be safe and sound."

"If you're so ruthless why did you try to help those people?"

"Because they're human and so am I."

"Good 'cause it worked, sorry about the kick."

"Huh?"

"What? It was a test."

"A test? Didn't I pass the first one?"

"Well yes but y'know, we have to be sure."

"Ouch."

"It wasn't my idea."

"So Dr. Lam chucking me in jail?"

"Not part of the test, she's very defensive when it comes to glowing alien lights."

"Well that's something. Can I leave now?"

"Sure, it's just about dawn, need a recharge?"

"No I was just tired."

"You get tired?"

"Yep."

"Weird."

"Yep, oh hey how are the injured?"

"Complete recovery across the board." I jumped up and punched the air.

"What?" I asked Jack's smirking face.

"Nothing its just, well, that was a little eighties."

"Yeah . . . could you unlock the door now?"

"Sure." He punched a code into the wall access and the fields dropped. A security guard on the other side opened the gate.

"Not cool O'Neill." I grumbled. He remained silent and followed me out.

"Stupid humans." I muttered.

"Hey now you're human _and_ the stupid humans fooled you, twice."

"Hey, I'm Nephilim calling me human is like . . .like . . . I don't know it's not accurate." I grumbled. I could feel him smirking but ignored it. As we walked further into the SGC I felt strange, I couldn't place it at first.

I passed the healed and hopeful throngs, nodded greetings at the few people I had actually met and the feeling increased. It welled through me, filling me, I felt I would burst but still it increased. I smiled without realizing it and looked at Jack. He was humming to himself as we walked and then it occurred to me, I knew what I was feeling, I was happy.

I stopped walking and Jack nearly collided with me.

"There's something different Jack, what's changed?"

"Well other than a little over a hundred people being healed not much."

"No, that's not it, something has changed, something . . ." I trailed off. No doubt the officer thought I was nuts. I scowled and shook my head.

"Never mind I'm just . . . tired I guess." But I wasn't something had changed, something fundamental had twisted there was someone or something here that didn't belong.

"So are you going to let me in on your dirty secrets?"

"I thought you knew them all?" He said brusquely.

"I know the cliff notes, and I've spent the last ten years. . . out of touch so a refresher would be good."

"No."

"That's it?"

"Yep."

"Not very fair."

"Nope."

"Fine."

"Really? You're going to leave it at that?"

"For now."

"Ah."

"So, any sign of the Ori since I fried 'em?"

"Yeah you're going to have to wait on that, also don't sound so proud."

"Why?"

"Because what you did was impossible, and impossible explosions make the wrong kinds of people curious. You're pretty ignorant for someone so 'wise and old'."

"I'm not ignorant, I'm fearless. There are only a handful of things in this world I'm actually afraid of, your government, its black ops, and enemy organizations, are not on my list."

"Yeah well maybe you should be afraid." I shrugged.

"By the way where are we going?"

"Don't worry we're almost there."

I continued walking in silence after awhile I realized we were heading for the gate room. The route was unfamiliar and seemed to be taking longer than necessary but we were definitely heading for the gate room.

"Why the gate room?" I demanded. He ignored me, either he was tough; confident he could handle me should I lose my temper, suicidal, or knew something I didn't. I kept my cool although I badly wanted to know what was going on.

"General-"

"Relax we're here." He swiped his access card and a pin number into the main door to the gate room. I waited patiently with my arms folded while the lock cycled and he put his card away. He went through first and I followed on his heels.

The room was packed, side to side, wall to wall with ranks upon ranks of military service members. A smattering of unfamiliar uniforms hinted at other services aside from the Air Force performing duties at the SGC, one group even looked Russian. I froze.

I know thousands upon thousands of years of living and surviving and I froze. But, in my defense, I had just been rudely woken, and nearly my entire existence had been spent hiding my nature from humanity. The fact that there were now more than a hundred human beings, all aware of my nature or at least my abilities facing me scared the pants off me.

So I froze like a deer in the headlights. Then Max appeared and took my hand, she whispered in my ear and time began to move again. I relaxed, outwardly and began following Jack, Max surreptitiously released me. I followed the General up to the Iris shielding the gate from the rest of the universe.

He turned and faced the throng of humanity. Their eyes bore into me like lasers, I closed my eyes and forced a sense of surreal calm. I reminded myself of who I was and what I could do, it helped a little. The General began speaking to his people, he thanked them for their courage and sacrifices, it wasn't the blood and thunder I had half expected but a warm appeal to friends. These people were very close indeed then he introduced me and spoke more. I don't remember everything he said, I was focusing on not freaking out for most of it.

Then he turned to me and I walked forward he said some more very nice things and pinned a medal on my shirt. I looked down at it stupidly for a few seconds and then glanced up. He and the crowd seemed to be waiting. I smiled and nodded and then took the podium

"Hi I uh, I'm actually very nervous up here." That got bursts of good natured, supportive laughter, which rattled me nonetheless.

"You don't need to thank me for what I did, this is my home too, and I'll be damned if some stuck up alien is going to tell me what to think or do." I said they cheered and I stepped back. O'Neill said a few more things and I stood behind him trying to recover from the adrenaline coursing through me.

Finally ages later the crowd began to disburse and O'Neill and Max returned to me. I stared at them in annoyance and relief.

"Never, ever do that again." I growled.

"Uh yeah why?" Jack asked I gave him a hostile look, glanced at Max and stomped off. Max spoke to the officer in low tones, I assumed she was setting him straight, Max sympathized, immortals were also forced to hide and disliked being placed in a spotlight, at least most did.

I stomped off not wanting to speak to any of the well meaning and grateful hordes I headed toward empty halls and quiet rooms but I soon became lost and frustrated. I didn't even have a corner of my own to retreat to. I sat down against a wall and closed my eyes.

What was it that had changed? Healing the humans? That didn't seem right. What? I ran the day through my head again and again but nothing stuck out, there was just a pervasive wrongness in the air. I opened my eyes and stared at the stark gray wall in front of me. Most of the facility had color coded floors but this one was bare. I heard steps far off near the elevator I had stumbled across to get here.

I remained where I was unconcerned, unafraid, almost relaxed. Max appeared she silently sat next to me and wrapped her arms around her knees. She rested her cheek on her kneecaps and looked at me. I ignored her and kept trying to figure out what had changed.

"Simon?" I glanced at her and away from my fascinating piece of wall.

"Simon I'm sorry, I didn't know he would do that. They mean well."

"The road to hell." I muttered she snorted and reached for my hand. I dodged her grip and go to my feet.

"There's something wrong here." I said pacing back and forth in front of her.

"Like what?"

"I don't know, its something in the air, something . . . I can feel."

"Is it bad?"

"Is it bad?" I mocked and froze, I never acted like that. She looked shocked and then pissed. I stepped away from her and scrubbed my face.

"I'm sorry Max, I don't know where that came from." I apologized. She glared at me.

"Yeah well I'm needed upstairs, come see me when you feel like behaving like a human." She said coldly.

I watched her go and didn't stop her. I wasn't sure what I wanted, I didn't want her to comfort me like a weak child, or a scared man, I didn't want her to hate me either, but I didn't want well anything just then.

I'm a loner by nature and habit, and while Max's presence had become necessary as I had so recently learned I couldn't be close to anyone for long without chafing. Add the stress of O'Neill's well intentioned surprise and I was in a poor mood for company. I don't know I didn't want her to leave but I couldn't be bothered to stop her either. I felt empty and distracted.

So I sat and regarded my patch of wall and thought. I drifted off to sleep or what I'm not sure but footsteps brought me back. I sat up straight and slowly got to my feet. Sam appeared by the elevator I waited for her to approach.

"What are you doing down here?" She asked kindly. I shrugged.

"I needed some air."

"Right. You needed air so you went down six levels to the subbasement storage area." She said with a straight face. I smiled slightly.

"Yes."

"Okay, well if you've had enough air I could use your help."

"What could I possibly help you with?"

"I have questions."

"Ah, well lead the way then." I said and was disturbed by the false enthusiasm in my voice. Why would I care enough about this random human to create a false emotion to soothe her feelings? I didn't care if she knew I was in a foul mood or did I? What had changed? Why did I care more about this anonymous human's curiosity and emotional being when I'd just snarled at Max and ignored her when she was hurt?

"So do you have a last name?" Carter was making small talk.

"Smith." I said.

"Ah, not John, just Smith?"

"I like my name."

"Yeah, okay we have some questions about what happened on the planet."

"I contain vast amounts of power, the exact nature of which I am ignorant of, however this power allows me to do many things including but not limited to, changing my shape, adding and taking away wings, telepathy, telekinesis, instant healing and the ability to channel that energy as a weapon. Oh yeah, and with the exception of injury by an angelic weapon I'm nearly immortal."

"Nearly?"

"Well, I've never actually tried to kill myself but I'm pretty creative and I imagine something like diving into the sun would do it."

"I would imagine so."

"If not, well lets not think about it."

"Can you survive in outer space? Without a space suit or ship I mean?"

"Now now Doctor Carter, if I gave you all the answers what would be left for you?"

In truth I wasn't sure. I'm not entirely sure how I came to be on earth, I know that Oro my home wasn't on the earth but after the battle things blur and fade. I know that my home, my planet or whatever it was, is history gone, obliterated, as though it never existed but that's all I really know.

"Yeah well, hang out with us long enough and you might get to find out."

I gave her a curious look.

"Long story, just never trust a reverse engineered Goa'uld ship, ever."

"Noted, I imagine you'd like to do some tests?"

"If you don't mind."

"Well, the way I see it is I can let you run your tests or I can let the people who take me away from you run _their_ tests, so yes please do what you like, I'm curious myself."

So she did, she and Lam took blood and urine and every other sample you could think of, including sticking a tube down my throat for some reason. They ran scans and asked questions, poked, prodded and plucked. It was an enormously long day. Then Sam got creative and began making up scans and tests. She wheeled in strange devices, no doubt alien and beamed stranger lights and things over me finally Doctor Jackson arrived. He studied the two engrossed women for a moment and then cleared his throat.

"Oh hey Daniel." Sam said over the top of some kind of monitor.

"You okay Simon?"

"Well, bored, very very bored, and a little sleepy but yeah, you?"

"Fine, Sam?"

"Yep?"

"You wanna cut him loose?" She blinked and seemed to realize the situation, she actually blushed and nodded. I followed Jackson out, rubbing my wrist where they'd had an I.V. inserted.

"She's a good person but if you don't put your foot down the scientist can get away from her."

I shrugged and remained silent.

"You've been assigned quarters if you want them."

"I'm fine, think I'll go for a walk."

"Max was asking after you." I ignored him and kept walking.

"Hey I understand this is all very weird for you and the adoring crowds aren't helping but we mean well and we want you to feel secure and welcome here, so if something is bothering you tell us."

"That's just it Dr. Jackson I don't know whats happening to me or this place. Something is wrong, something . . . changed and its different I don't know what or if its actually dangerous but its messing with me okay?"

"I'll show you your quarters, maybe you just need rest." I was barely listening to the doctor. My own exhaustion and worries were distracting me.


	9. Choice and Consequence

I followed Jackson's advice and stretched out to sleep. My quarters were simple and austere but I didn't mind. My apartment attached to my office had been pretty bare Max had always been after me to add some kind of decorations to it. I laid down and tried to shut out the world. The pervasive sense of wrongness persisted, like an itch between my shoulder blades I couldn't quite reach. Eventually my physical exhaustion from Carter and Lam's tests overwhelmed the itch and I drifted away.

I woke up sore and confused. Both strange states to be in, I took a few moments to recall why I was waking up in such an unfamiliar place but being sore, well that was new and not novel.

I sat up slowly and rubbed my head. My shoulders, ribs, and back ached fiercely, felt like I'd been beaten by a stick which had actually happened to me once in my youth. I had committed some transgression and my Aunt had beaten me for it. Not a good memory.

The home life of Nephilim I imagined had not been terribly different from that of humans. More violent I would guess, Nephilim are incredibly difficult to kill through mundane means – I had lied to the SGC it could be done but they didn't need to know that. So instead of a slap on the hand or a paddling a thorough beating with an eight inch tree branch was more likely.

My mother had died or vanished shortly after my birth. I was a toddler when I was first on my own. I wandered from tent to tent, a sort of stray dog in the encampment. My father wanted nothing to do with me, unlike most of the Angelic Fathers he was not fascinated or proud of me, at best he was indifferent although I had received just as many kicks and blows from him as other adults in Oro who had neither the patience nor compassion to spare for a lone child.

I stole or begged each scrap of clothing and every mouthful of food. My abilities and knowledge were stolen as well, I would intimidate a cousin into teaching me everything he or she knew either through force, trickery, or bribery. All Nephilim are cousins but even that tacit familial relationship earned me nothing but scorn. Every other Nephilim lived in security and grandeur. Kushiel viewed me as a failing or a weakness. I often wondered why he didn't simply destroy me outright, perhaps it was too much work or would take him away from his duties.

So I survived into manhood, although there was none to conduct the ceremony over me or find a woman for me I was physically a man separated from my cousins further by my in between status. Then the Angels came, armed with blades and crushing weapons, not gifts of great beauty and astonishing foods.

The slaughter was absolute. The first to fall were those who ran to greet their fathers and husbands. They were driven to the earth and annihilated so thoroughly that the sand turned from glittering gold to muddy red for miles around. The next to die were those too astonished and horrified to flee. Some managed to find weapons and stand against the tide of winged death. Their deaths were especially painful and gruesome. Finally all that was left were those like me who had witnessed the initial slaughter and ran, darting through Oro as it began to burn, hurtling over petrified human women and their demi-angelic children who were too frightened to move. I tried to get one woman to her feet but she lashed out at me and spit like a serpent so I left her and fled on alone.

I closed my ears to the savage screams and heart broken cries filling the air, the inhuman wails of Nephilim with their throats cut. I paused to be sick and then ran on. Oro was enormous far vaster than any standing human city even in this day and age. But I reached the far edge eventually and there was Kushiel, waiting for me. How he knew my path or even knew to recognize me among the other fleeing Nephilim I did not know, but he called me by name.

"Simon my son, it is time to pass on the Creator demands it."

"I have done nothing wrong! I was born that is all!" I screamed and tried to turn and run.

"That is the only sin you need have committed." Kushiel said and drove his spear into me. The blow was so powerful it dropped me to my face in the bloody sand. It was the most painful thing I had ever experienced.

I don't know what happened immediately after that, the next thing I was aware of was waking up naked and bleeding on a lakeside on Earth somewhere on the African continent. I spent the next hundred or so millennia wandering until humanity showed up for the record humans have been around a hell of a lot longer than they think. Still it was lonely and even when humanity showed up I couldn't blend in with them, too long on my own and I looked too different. I was blond and giant and muscular, they were little shriveled people with dark hair and eyes who would have worshipped me. So I hung around and learned about them.

Eventually I managed to join their groups but I didn't stay long, for one not aging and healing instantly got noticed with a quickness, people these days are not as observant. So I wandered again but at least there were other people to speak with. The angels largely left me alone I would feel them occasionally but I doubt they noticed me at all.

So time passed empires rose and fell people loved and murdered and eventually I found Max and started an agency. Then things went South again. Oh well what else could I expect?

I stood up and stretched noting the pop and groan of tendons and muscles. I looked around for a clock to check the time and came up empty. Apparently it wasn't standard issue for the guest quarters. I dressed in a borrowed set of utility coveralls with no insignia or rank and headed out.

I was heading toward the surface when a familiar voice shouted out to me. I looked behind me and spotted Carter charging after me. She looked disheveled and exhausted.

"Have you slept at all?" I asked as she drew level with me.

"No, look would you mind a few more tests?"

"Why?" I asked with a frown.

"We've discovered some inconsistencies."

"Like what?"

"You're bleeding energy, a sort of radiation, very rare we've only seen it in experimental situations in laboratories, never in nature."

"Is it dangerous?"

"No, but it is powerful."

"What are you trying to say Carter?" I said impatiently.

"I am concerned that this power is from your core, Dr. Lam and I agree that you might be . . . bleeding out."

"Is it killing me?"

"We don't know."

"Can you stop it?"

"We have some ideas."

"Okay." I was beginning to feel numb and panicky. Real death had never been a concern of mine. After surviving my father's attempt to murder me real death had never seemed likely, I had always been able to fight back or avoid it. I shook my head and followed Carter closely. She led me back to her lab and began a series of tests immediately. Doctor Lam took my vitals and asked me how I felt.

"Sore, bruised, tired."

"Is that usual for you?"

"No on the contrary it is extremely odd."

"Do you think exposure to sunlight would help you?"

"Maybe I don't know this hasn't happened before. How did you figure out I was bleeding this energy?"

"The lighting system went off line we traced the problem to interference from an unknown power source, you."

"Okay, so fix me docs." I said with false cheer, they didn't need to know I was afraid.

So they began, endless scans and readouts. The general and Jackson arrived at some point silently observing and deciding. I felt a burst of annoyance and anger at their passive stares I was scared and panicked and wanted nothing more than to run the clock back ten years. Finally after what felt like decades the women stopped their tests.

"Whats the verdict ladies?"

"We've managed to slow the bleed but I don't know if we can stop it entirely." Sam said wearily. I looked over at Lam she seemed even less pleased with her results.

"Carolyn, what is it?"

"You're getting weaker. The more energy you lose the more physical strength you loose, if we don't stop it soon –"

"I'll begin to die." I said numbly. She nodded sadly.

"What do you recommend?"

"This radiation is extremely rare it's only been detected in nebula and gas clouds in deep space. Where did you come from Simon?"

"A place called Oro I don't know where it is I don't know if it even exists anymore."

"Its possible Oro is where you received this energy. If we could get you to a place saturated with this radiation then the bleed might heal naturally."

"How? I know you have gate technology but unless you happen to have a gate address that opens up in a nebula we're screwed."

"We have friends, powerful friends with technology so far beyond even the Goa'uld that it looks like magic. We are not beaten yet Simon we'll figure this out." Sam said sternly. I smiled tiredly.

"I'd like to see Max, does she know about any of this?"

"No I don't think so."

"Tell me Doc, how'd this happen? I mean why now what's causing the bleed?"

"When you healed all those wounded people you tore a wound in yourself, that wound hasn't healed right, you're still bleeding." Lam said.

"Great, teach me to do a good thing. Okay I'm off ladies let me know when you find out anything." I said cheerfully and left. I had no idea where Max was but I had a hunch she would be topside in one of the parks on the installation. I thought about the little lake they'd found for me.

I headed up waving away a group of security forces offering a ride. If I was going to die I'd like to do it above ground in the fresh air and not in a crowded truck or in the dank warren of the SGC. I walked slowly savoring the cool Colorado air and the whisper of wind through the various trees and plants around me.

I found Max fishing at the little lake. She seemed content. Her tackle box was nearly empty and a six pack of beer was at her side. I sat next to her and dangled my feet in the water.

"You'll scare the fish." She said. I smiled.

"Did you really want to catch any?" I asked nodding toward her unbaited line.

"No."

I fell silent content to sit.

"I had an interesting chat with Danny a few hours ago."

"Oh yeah what'd he have to say?"

"Something about you leaking radiation."

"Oh that, its nothing to worry about."

"Sure, you're only dying."

"Not yet I'm not, come on you said these people are the best at their jobs, so no I'm not dying, well, yet."

"Simon this isn't a joke-"

"Max I'm older than civilization, older than humanity, probably older than immortals if anyone has to die –"

"No, Simon you are _not_ going to die." She said sternly and glared at me over her pole.

"All I'm saying Max is that everything dies, everything Max even you and Macleod and all the other immortals, even Sharkey and Ben and all the other freaky creatures in our lives, the sun and this solar system, the galaxy itself, one day even the universe, _everything_ dies. Maybe its just my turn."

"Aren't you afraid?"

"Of course I'm afraid, I'm terrified. Humanity has their gods and the promise of God's heaven or hell to comfort them, what have I got? Where will I go when I die? So yeah I'm scared Max, but it will happen one day. I don't want to be the one living thing that looks on as the universe collapses and the big bang happens again, I don't want to live that long okay?"

"So that's it you're giving up?"

"No, not yet but if Carter and Lam can't figure out a solution then I'm willing to –" I collapsed then as a lance of fire pierced my gut and I dropped to my knees.

"Simon!" Max shouted. She dropped her pole, I watched it slip into the lake, she snatched me up by the shoulders and looked me in the eyes, or tried to, I had them screwed shut against the agony. Finally the pain faded and I opened my eyes.

"Simon?" She asked quietly.

"I'm fine help me up." I said weakly. She didn't argue and got me to my feet.

"Simon you look like hammered death, we should go back in."

"No, Max I don't want to die in a lab."

"We don't know that you're going to die yet, come on, you said you weren't giving up." She ordered and dragged me toward the SGC. Partway there the group of Security Forces in the truck showed up again and dragged me aboard. Max hopped on too and we headed in. Lam met us with a med team and a gurney.

"Get off me." I growled as the med techs dragged me onto the gurney. They ignored me which pissed me off, for no apparent reason, so I lashed out and knocked one to the ground. I got to my feet and staggered away from the group.

"Leave me alone!" I growled and wobbled threateningly. Sweat stood out in prominent beads on my paper white skin.

"Jus . . . lea . . . me . . ." I muttered and dropped to my knees. Two people rushed forward to pick me up. I waved my arms at them and swore in the language or Oro a language I wasn't sure I still knew, then the black had me.

The incessant beeping of monitors and hiss of a ventilator woke me up. I couldn't speak because of the tube down my throat so I tried to pull it out which earned me some attention. Max leaned over me and said something I couldn't understand. I scowled and pulled harder on the tube. She gripped my hand and spoke to someone beyond my vision and the tube was gently removed. I coughed and hacked for a few minutes and then caught my breath.

Max leaned over me and spoke again but her words were sheer gibberish I shook my head and tried to answer her, warm water was forced down my throat I drank greedily and then coughed again clearing my wind pipe. I tried again and managed to croak out a few words.

"What's going on?" I demanded. Max looked at me like I'd just threatened to kill her, complete confusion and fear. I frowned and she spoke again, again I couldn't understand her. I began to feel afraid, I had spoken English since its creation how could I not know what she was saying now?

Someone pressed a paper and pencil into my hand.

"What is going on?" I wrote frantically. It looked like English to me. Max took it and read an expression of relief filled her face.

"You are speaking a language we don't recognize, Daniel is stumped as well." She wrote. I sighed.

"It must be the language of Oro I thought I had forgotten it, why don't I understand spoken English?"

"We don't know." She wrote and set the pad aside after I read her response.

I sighed, this was a disaster. Why was I losing my English but rediscovering my Orish? I hated Oro all I knew there was pain, abuse and death. Why would I regress to that state?

I picked up the pad and scribbled a question.

"Am I still losing energy?"

Max smiled and shook her head.

"So I'm cured but can't communicate?" I wrote. She nodded and laughed tearfully. I sighed and shook her hand off my shoulder, I had no patience for her feelings. I sat up and clawed the monitors and plugs and ivs off of my chest. Lam tried to stop me but I skewered her with a look. I got to my feet and caught a look at myself in a full length mirror at the end of the room.

I was fascinated. I seemed younger, I hadn't actually changed much, my hair seemed darker, my eyes kinder, my skin more golden than alabaster, but the overall effect was one of youth. Even the scar on my chest looked more raw and shiny than it had, as though it had been recently inflicted. I ran a hand over the skin of the scar and was surprised at how tender it was. I reached inside and found my power, hot, vibrant and ready, I had not had such power or such ease of access to it in millennia.

I grinned and turned a predatory look toward the SGC personnel. I spoke aloud in the dead language of Oro.

"I am Nephilim restored! I am my father's son and none can stand against me, the Ori will fall before me!" I brought forth my wings and rejoiced in them. They were truly a blood red, where before they had been a dark metallic red these seemed freshly blooded I arched them over my head and flapped them experimentally before folding them close and sweeping out of the room.

I headed for the gate room, a few intrepid soldiers tried to stop me, I flung them aside with a gesture and a thought. Some faded diminished part of me railed against their abuse, the human in me, the weakness in me. The Ori would need the angel in me if I were to survive. I had nearly killed myself for humans too weak and useless to defend themselves, not again.

I strode into the gate room and regarded the iris. I turned to the observation room and shouted an order.

"Open the Iris or I will destroy you! Open the Iris and dial the Ori!" I could see Jack in the observation room. He spoke to me over the intercom but I have no idea what he was saying.

I shrieked an inhuman cry more akin to a bird of prey than a human and hurled a bolt of energy at the observation room. A screen descended but not soon enough to absorb the blast. The iris opened and the gate began to dial. I laughed triumphantly and waited for the wormhole to stabilize. As soon as the mirror surface steadied I spread my wings and threw myself through.

What awaited on the other side was a surprise. It was a planet with a surface of shimmering water, far ahead was a mighty city of curling spires and rippling towers. I beat my bloodied wings and darted through the moist air swooping and screaming my war cry. I wanted them to be ready. I dove down and watched humanoids in dark robes scatter before me. Armored men appeared and began to attack me. I dropped among them like a stone and slaughtered, utilizing a stolen weapon I decimated their ranks watching as the survivors fled in shock and regrouped beyond reach of my weapon. I laughed at their fear.

"I am Nephilim! Bring your leaders to me for I would parley with the mighty Ori!" I had no way of knowing if they understood me but a stream of figures whether priests or soldiers it was hard to say charged toward us from the most impressive citadel.

I laughed and headed higher. These tiny mortal creatures sought battle with me. I bared my teeth into the alien wind and let my power build I launched gouts of it at the cowering soldiery below me and the unknown forces approaching. The effect was amazingly destructive and satisfying. The material comprising the buildings was not sturdy enough to withstand my assault it crumbled like soft cheese and rained upon the remnants of the Ori forces. I giggled and banked down toward the main citadel.

Once near the entrance I dropped to the ground and killed the few remaining guards. Satisfied they were dead I discarded the stolen weapon and entered the enemy citadel. It was a grand and impressive structure I imagined my father would have been awed by it, Kushiel was such a simple creature.

I wandered through ornate but simple halls until I found a main chamber. At one end was a wall of living flame, in front of it stood a humanoid with skin like a mummy, his papery flesh was engraved with symbols his dead fiery eyes regarded me calmly.

"You do not cower before your conqueror human?" I demanded arching my wings and flinging enough power at him to level a building. He shrugged the blow away and regarded me calmly.

"Impressive." I conceded.

"Why do you come here to our city and take the lives or our people?"

"You have invaded my home, destroyed my people and threatened our allies. I am here to finish what you have begun." I said grandly.

"You are a psychotic murderer."

"Yes, but my cause is just." I pointed out. The humanoid inclined its head.

"I am the Orici I speak for the Ori."

"Leave our galaxy, and never trouble us again, allow your own people to choose what they worship and do not trouble the Ancients and I will leave, I will not tear your society and city down around your ears though it would give me great pleasure to do so."

"What you ask is impossible, our people choose to follow the Ori it is the Ancients who trouble us and would destroy us."

"I see." I said and mustered a massive amount of power, more than I had ever controlled at once and threw it past the Orici and into the wall of fire. The wall rippled and froze for a split second, then it began to darken and crack. There was a psionic scream, it crawled over my skin and into my pores. The Orici screamed and threw his hands into the air flame burst from his eyes and mouth and he crumpled like a puppet with the strings cut.

"I AM NEPHILIM! I AM NOT TO BE DISOBEYED!" I roared and began hurling more and more power at the wall and the structure. Finally as huge pieces of the ceiling began to fall I fled I launched into the air and began raining fire and explosions down into the strange city. As the citadel collapsed cracks seemed to form from its base across the surface of the planet. They extended from horizon to horizon and seemed bottomless, the surface of the planet flowed into the cracks and then the dirt on the edges followed after, the planet seemed to be swallowing itself. I wallowed in the destruction until I saw the cracks approaching the Stargate.

I darted toward it and slammed the chevrons for earth. The dialing sequence seemed to take an eternity, finally as the cracks hurtled toward it the wormhole stabilized and I launched into it. I returned to the SGC in a hail of rubble and smoke I crashed to the ground and slid into the wall below the observation room. I lay unmoving, shielded from the debris by my bloody wings.

Finally as the noise ceased and only the incoming klaxon remained blaring away I got to my feet and shook my wings, dust and debris rained down upon me. I folded the wings and regarded the SGC. Two platoons of Marines were facing me, weapons ready. I raised my hands and smirked. I started to speak when unspeakable pain seared through me, I screamed and raised my arms as though to ward off an attacker. Then it was black, again.

This time when I woke I was chained and alone. It looked like an isolation ward of some kind. I glared around and tried to focus my eyes although my head hurt fiercely. I sat up slowly, as far the chains would allow.

"Hello?" I called the room was dark, the only light came from the screens of monitors checking my health and a dim reading radiating from an observation room to my left.

"Simon?"

"Who else? Who is that?" I called.

"It's me Simon, its Max."

"What's going on Max?" I demanded groggily my trip to the Ori was a blur.

"You tell us, twelve hours ago you went berserk and forced your way into the gate room, you demanded we send you to the Ori, you came back seven hours ago. What happened? We're receiving reports from occupied worlds and the Ori home galaxy that the Priors and Ori soldiers are disappearing, that the Ori have lost all power, what did you do?"

"I'm not sure, wait how did you know I wanted to go to the Ori?"

"Daniel managed to figure out rough translations of what you were saying, Jack just guessed where you wanted to go initially."

"No he didn't he saw a berserk Nephilim and figured the Ori could either deal with me or suffer my wrath, smart guy Jack." I sighed. Max didn't argue, I never understood why she continually attempted to shield my feelings, I don't really have feelings not like she did.

"I really don't remember." I muttered.

"Not good enough Simon, consider things from our point of view, you've done something, something violent and powerful, something that could be a threat, and who were you when you did them? I didn't know that man, I didn't know his language or who he was!"

"You want to know who that was? That was me, a hundred thousand years ago in Oro, that is what I was and y'know what? I wasn't even one of the bad ones. I was scum, unwanted and underfoot, I got more beatings and broken bones than anything else in my life there. My father abandoned me and my mother was dead so I survived as an orphan in a sea of demi-angels and their mothers, I was the scapegoat for an entire community of creatures with more power at their fingertips than anything on the face of this earth. That was me, damaged, distrustful, angry as hell. Aren't you glad you never knew me? That is what it is to be Nephilim and embrace your nature. Time has tempered me Max, without all those centuries of loneliness I might still be that person."

"Simon you have to tell us what you did."

"I don't know what I did, I'm afraid to know what I did." I snarled. The chains on my wrists and ankles rattled with my movements.

"Genocide." A cold voice said. I looked around, I don't know why I couldn't even see Max let alone this new person.

"We've sent probes to the Ori city. Its gone, the whole planet has collapsed into itself, the city, all the priors and soldiers, even the Orici, its all gone." The voice continued.

I gaped like a landed fish.

"What? No no not genocide, I'm not an angel, I wouldn't . . ." I was babbling. The door to the isolation room opened, admitting Max and Jack.

"Jack I couldn't have –"

"Don't argue it, it happened."

"How?" I asked. Despair thick in my voice.

"We don't know."

"But, it wasn't me, I mean not anymore that part of me is dead has been dead for a hundred millennia."

"You're saying that was you as a child?"

"You think teenagers today are hard to deal with? Yes that was me as an adolescent, hard to imagine a whole city full of us, yes? Why do you think God ordered us destroyed? We are the most terrible force to enter the cosmos, the rage and hate of a human with the powers and cruelties of an angel the worst aspects of God's most beloved creations!" I shrieked. Jack backed away and the door closed. Max spoke in the dark.

"They're going to lock you away or kill you."

"Good." I panted.

"Good?"

"You still don't get it do you? _I_ don't care if I die, _I_ don't want to see humans hurt by me don't you see? To hurt a human makes me angelic and that is the WORST thing I could ever be. To be angelic to me is to be inhuman, to feel nothing worthwhile, to hate and tear at that which you should love because 'duty' calls for it. I would rather die than become that hateful survivor again, or hurt a single human. So yes kill me, or lock me away. Put me in the basement and pour concrete in around me, I don't care!" I roared and sagged against my chains in exhaustion. There was a brief blast of light as Max opened the door walked through it and closed it.

So they did, they left me in chains, locked the dozens of doors behind them and sealed the two floors above me in heavy weight foundation concrete. Every nook, every cranny, the ventilation shafts and maintenance access points, emergency exits and storage areas, everything was filled in and I was erased from the records of the SGC.

I have the power to shatter my chains and destroy the SGC, I could fly over these mountains raining death down upon the people. But I don't want to, I'm happy here, I don't want to leave.

Sometimes in the dark, I hear wings, I hear feathers drifting through the silent dust choked air and I fear Kushiel. I hear the soft steps of feet that have never worn shoes, that have only ever known rough earth and air and I feel fear. Other times I feel the angel in me stir nauseatingly, like some dark and powerful parasite churning in my chest and demanding sacrifice.

So I test my bonds and deny my power and pray to God that he will listen, that he will pity and make me a normal man.

He doesn't answer.


End file.
